Get it Right: Oculus isn’t “Blocking Porn”
VR is seen to have a huge potential when it comes to pornographic material – people assume that its sense of immersion and presence gives a realistic feel to the consumption of adult content. Although porn’s adoption in VR is expected to have a good share of the consumer VR market, it’s really anyone’s guess where this will lead.
Recently, tech blogs around the net have been having a field day wrongly reporting that Oculus changed its tune regarding VR porn, or that they have now decided to start blocking it. While these headlines may draw clicks, the reality is that nothing has changed.
With the imminent launch of the consumer-version Oculus Rift early next year, the odds of having a growing amount of adult content is high, and there’s still nothing to stop it. The Rift offers such high-end hardware that essentially makes the VR experience unique when it comes to pornographic materials. The combination of high-def displays, rich audio, comfort, and support for various accessories may make the Oculus Rift, and other VR headsets, an obvious tool for people to experience a new world of porn.
Even during the Rift’s development phases with the numerous Rift prototypes such as the DK1 and DK2, VR developers are already working on integrating adult content on the Rift. It is seen to be the future of adult content consumption, where its users (usually men) will have the chance to have sex in a virtual world, having the feeling of true sex even without a real, physical partner. There have been adult VR services offered for the Rift since its early development. Some notable adult VR services come from the names of VirtualRealPorn, Veiviev, and Red Light Center. These are adult VR sites that support the Oculus Rift for pornographic content.
Back to the point… in time with the announcement of the Rift’s launch as a consumer version, there were questions raised about how the Rift will handle adult VR. Some news sites and blogs have told the VR community that the Rift will not support porn, but the thing is that some have misleading facts. Oculus has simply stated that pornographic content will not be allowed to be sold from their content store. However, the Rift is an open system, unlike most Apple products, and so adult content will certainly be available from independent providers. Take VirtualRealPorn for example. Its users are entitled to have access to a portfolio of adult videos that is view-able with the Oculus Rift. VirtualRealPorn itself is not affiliated in any way with Oculus, meaning all of their services are outside Oculus’ terms and are made available to any interested consumer using his Rift headset. Their content are not intended to be published on any Oculus-branded content store, which makes it a good alternative for those people who are looking to enjoy porn using the Rift.
For more information on adult VR on the Oculus Rift, please visit the following websites:
http://www.virtualrealitytimes.com/2015/04/08/list-of-virtual-worlds-for-the-oculus-rift/
http://www.virtualrealitytimes.com/2015/03/22/veiviev-develops-adult-vr-experiences-for-the-oculus-rift/
http://www.virtualrealitytimes.com/2015/03/29/adult-vr-service-offers-lifelike-content-to-vr-headsets/
