In the US, researchers like Safiya Umoja Noble, Ruha Benjamin, and Joy Buolamwini argue that biased algorithms perpetuate racism on and offline. The European Commission’s White Paper on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence posits that “the use of algorithms can perpetuate or even stimulate racial bias”. This will prevent an exacerbation of existing social and mental health concerns, and the Metaverse may even be used to benefit racial-ethnic minority communities. Therefore, addressing the US federal technology policy gaps with social work principles related to the Metaverse is an urgent priority. Immediate implementation of the Metaverse in the present non-regulated tech and social condition has the highest potential of amplifying existing social inequalities and mental health challenges in the virtual universe. Social work in the Metaverse would pave a path for racial and mental health equity to prevent possible digital harm. In light of this, there is an urgent need for social work interventions in the virtual world. As a community of social work scientists and mental health practitioners, we are concerned that the Metaverse may amplify social risks, i.e., the addictive nature of algorithms can exacerbate mental health problems in virtual spaces (Karim et al., 2020 McCluskey, 2022). It is proven that existing technologies and algorithms are biased and cause digital harm to vulnerable communities ( Pilkington, 2019).
The main platform companies behind the Metaverse plan for it to become a virtual marketplace, which will require the collection and potential exploitative use of personal data (Wheeler, 2021). These technologies will create a virtual world for social connections, entertainment, games, fitness, work, education, and commerce as a digital economy (Snider & Molina, 2021). The Metaverse is a new combination of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), and blockchain (Metz, 2021).