Abstract

Purpose: There are already hundreds of millions of users of the Metaverse platform, and within a few years, it is expected to develop into a stage for new economic activities with huge industrial ripple effects due to the size of users. The purpose of this study is to derive considerations for the development of metaverse ethical guidelines. Research design, data, and methodology: The concept of the metaverse was examined through various opinions of industry and experts on the metaverse, and literature related to metaverse ethics was analyzed in the Korean journal database. Results: Six issues were identified through the existing research. (1) Establishing a unified definition of metaverse (2) Necessity of establishing ethical principles considering the operator (3) Personal information protection and privacy (4) Expression in a virtual environment (5) Copyright and intellectual property rights of creations (6) Virtual economy and fairness of trade. Conclusions: Metaverse ethics will be developed and implemented in a form and method different from the real world, but basically, continuous discussions on ethical rationality are needed in the process. In addition, since the ethical judgment in the metaverse environment accompanies cultural differences and epochal changes, it is necessary to focus on metaverse ethics cases.