현재 및 미래의 메타버스 상 일신전속적 가치 침해에 대한 형법적 대응

The expansion of Metaverse industry has encouraged diverse human activities to be transferred from a real world to a virtual world. Though such change may enable us to enjoy various activities, which otherwise would have not been possible, in comfort, such positive effects of Metaverse accompany side effects. Certain legally protected unalienable values, such as one’s reputation or sexual freedom, of natural persons are currently harmed by the verbal or visual acts of the avatars in the Metaverse platforms vicariously acting for the natural persons controlling the avatars. In the future Metaverse platforms to be combined with the various technologies to enhance its immersiveness and reality, the harm to more diverse and grave unalienable values is expected. Accordingly, it is essential for us to pursue the safety in the Metaverse platforms by effectively countering against the various harms caused by the avatars to our unalienable values. As a part of such efforts, this paper illustrates the necessity and limitations of criminal law enforcement against the acts of avatars causing harm to unalienable values of natural persons; suggests several plans for the reform of substantive criminal law to overcome the limitations. By enabling the proper criminal penalties to be imposed against the wrongful acts in the Metaverse, particularly causing harm to unalienable values of natural persons, as in the real world, this paper aims to achieve the traditional criminal law purposes-retribution and prevention-required to secure the safety in the emerging Metaverse society.