Cancellation of "Bee Blaster" Item Release
foxabc
We strongly request that you either cease the sale and distribution of the "Bee Blaster" as a VRC+ item or implement a specific feature to hide/disable it.
Our request is based on the following concerns:
- Aversion to sounds: The buzzing sounds of bees cause significant distress.
- Entomophobia: Many users have a strong dislike of bees, even in 2D or stylized forms.
- PTSD Triggers: For some, these triggers can lead to serious psychological distress (PTSD).
Inclusivity: We ask for respect toward users who suffer from insect phobias.
There is a large global community of people who suffer from such phobias. While we love other VRC+ items and do not wish to use "Mute/Hide All Avatar Global Items," we find this specific item problematic.
This situation is similar to the "sunman" issue in FISH!. If this item is implemented without a way to filter it, we are prepared to gather international support and signatures from affected users to seek a formal resolution with VRChat Inc.
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夏又いんく
I personally have no problem with bees, but it could become a Spider Blaster or even a jump scare item next time.
You all should think seriously about actual content gating, including those you made and your creators made.
Patroll
Maybe another option would be to expand the content warning system with a tag related to phobias and tag the item with it, so you can filter it out in settings. This way it would also help with avatars and worlds with similar content.
foxabc
I will leave all decisions regarding this matter and the emergency safety maintenance to VRChat Developer.
Thank you to everyone who shared their comments.
Just for the record, I’m a huge fan of official VRC items—I’ll even sacrifice part of my food budget just to afford them. It breaks my heart to think that items might be banned instance-wide because of this situation.
frou01
This is a structural problem, not a problem with a specific item.
If we consider the possibility of Items becoming a UGC area in the future, VRCdev should implement Safety-Menu for Item categories to add these items.
Ceasing the sale and distribution of the "Bee Blaster" will definitely be a bad move. As the current situation shows, it is clear that some UGC lacks consideration.
The consideration that VRCdev should take is not to eliminate something, but to provide a way to prevent harm.
Of course, some things that go too far should be eliminated.
frou01
I think this item could be used for harassment, but since it's impossible to completely control the content of user-generated content, we should try to find a realistic solution right now.
nekochanfood
FYI there's a related feedback; need option to hide specific items
foxabc
nekochanfoodThanks. I voted for that one too. A friend told me about it later.
dstayton
I fail to see a need for VRC to implement a special restriction or stop distribution of it. VRC already has several settings that can handle it.
We have the ability for instance owners to turn off items, users can individually hide items that are annoying them and you can turn sounds off for items completely. There’s a lot of phobias and people with phobias out there. Does VRC have to start catering how it handles items to all phobias now? If someone is being problematic with it, they can be dealt with via moderation tools. Same if they had similar functionality on their avatar.
foxabc
dstayton
I don’t personally have PTSD, but can you really say that to everyone who has a genuine phobia of bugs?
What you’re saying is like telling a past victim of bullying to watch someone being bullied, or forcing someone to look at their greatest fear and saying, "Since there's a hide button, just look at it for a second, feel sick, and then hide it."
Do you see what I'm getting at?
dstayton
foxabc
I have fears too but I’m not making other people remove things because of that fear. Also like I said in my comment, does VRC need to start working about everyone’s phobias while making items? I’ve seen people with bee related avatars, are we just gonna ban their avatars now? VRC could probably just add the feature Neko linked too but I really fail to see the reason to prevent further distribution of the item.
foxabc
dstayton
You’re right about that.
I may have expressed myself too strongly.
Ultimately, I’ll leave the judgment up to VRChat.