Identifying ethical issues in metaverse environments and developing solutions

Although the concept of the metaverse is still in the development phase, when we consider the progress of technologies with internet infrastructure, the metaverse will have an important place in the daily lives of individuals in the near future. Ethical problems will occur on metaverse platforms as well as in new media environments. The aim of the study is to draw a framework for ethical problems that may be experienced in metaverse environments based on both the daily life practices and the researches of experts who do academic studies on the metaverse and to determine the importance levels of the ethical problems reached in line with the approaches of users who are knowledgeable about the metaverse, who do studies or who have had the opportunity to experience it based on the existing technological infrastructure. The research, designed as a case study, was carried out in three different stages to allow for an in-depth examination and the use of various data sources. Initially, a literature review was conducted to establish a conceptual foundation, and definitions of ethics and the metaverse were presented. Based on these definitions, semi-structured interview forms were prepared, and interviews were conducted with academics working on the metaverse. Following the semi-structured interviews, ethical issues were identified, and the Q methodology was applied to determine users' perspectives on these issues. As a result of the study, it was concluded that many ethical problems such as cyberbullying, harassment, hate speech, and the use of personal data will be experienced with the use of metaverse platforms, which are expected to have an important place in individuals' lives in the near future, and that in order to prevent these problems, individuals should primarily use the systems more consciously, but existing platforms should also be transparent about the collection, storage, and use of data. Based on the participants' new media usage experiences and the knowledge they have gained about the metaverse, it was concluded that there should be environment rules, regular security updates, information about data use, legal regulations, and most importantly, individuals should have their own ethical values.