Wired: Virtual Rape crime in Second life being investigated

[mzkhadir]

Wired: Virtual Rape crime in Second life being investigated

 

[Pantoot]

In other news, an orc is being sought for questioning in the murder of a level 10 wizard.

 

[Toastedlightly]

weaksauce... turn the computer off!

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: Pantoot
In other news, an orc is being sought for questioning in the murder of a level 10 wizard.

Have You Seen This Man?

 

[NFS4]

WTF? I've seen it all now

 

[AdamK47]

I suppose they'll do anything to generate buzz and promote that horrible "game" thing.

 

[evident]

wow, you've got to be kidding me

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: evident
wow, you've got to be kidding me

Our laws say that an adult subjecting a teenager or child to sexual words, images or suggestions on the internet is preying on their mental and emotional state in a sexual way. Even if you never try to meet the minor in person, and even if you never touch them or expose your naked self to them, it is a crime to attempt to engage sexually with a minor.

If it is a criminal offense to sexually abuse a child on the internet, how can we say it is not possible to rape an adult online?

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: evident
wow, you've got to be kidding me

Our laws say that an adult subjecting a teenager or child to sexual words, images or suggestions on the internet is preying on their mental and emotional state in a sexual way. Even if you never try to meet the minor in person, and even if you never touch them or expose your naked self to them, it is a crime to attempt to engage sexually with a minor.

If it is a criminal offense to sexually abuse a child on the internet, how can we say it is not possible to rape an adult online?

Ummm, rape is a physical act, and therfore impossible to do online. Those laws about talking sexually with a minor have nothing to do with whether it is possible to physically assault someone in a game.

Edited for clarification.

 

[DaShen]

Question: Is Player killing (virtual killing) the same thing as murder? :roll:

This is just getting ridiculous. Granted, doing somethign like that is sick and twisted and should not be done, but equating it to rape is a little overboard.

 

[Kev]

can you copy and paste the article?

 

[So]

:laugh:

Whiskey...

 

[manowar821]

That is an absolute insult to any woman (or man for that matter) who has actually been raped.

It's not real rape, it doesn't hurt you, or even damage your precious little avatar. Retards.

 

[halik]

Reading that article just dropped my IQ 10 pts.

In related news, I was recently shot in R6 Vegas ... should I call cops?

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: AdamK47
I suppose they'll do anything to generate buzz and promote that horrible "game" thing.

bingo! free publicity

 

[glutenberg]

Virtual Rape Is Traumatic, but Is It a Crime?
05.04.07 | 12:00 AM

Last month, two Belgian publications reported that the Brussels police have begun an investigation into a citizen's allegations of rape -- in Second Life.

I am half convinced that the tantalizingly brief story, printed in De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws, is a hoax or an April Fool's joke.

Yet it has prompted several threads of discussion, from a legal analysis to four pages of commentary at the Second Citizen forums.

Unfortunately, rape in virtual spaces is not unheard of. And I'm not talking about the "consensual" rape built into some games (although if you're interested in that debate, GameGrene has a good conversation about it).

There is no question that forced online sexual activity -- whether through text, animation, malicious scripts or other means -- is real; and is a traumatic experience that can have a profound and unpleasant aftermath, shaking your faith in yourself, in the community, in the platform, even in sex itself.

Our laws say that an adult subjecting a teenager or child to sexual words, images or suggestions on the internet is preying on their mental and emotional state in a sexual way. Even if you never try to meet the minor in person, and even if you never touch them or expose your naked self to them, it is a crime to attempt to engage sexually with a minor.

If it is a criminal offense to sexually abuse a child on the internet, how can we say it is not possible to rape an adult online?

But I have a hard time calling it "rape," or believing it's a matter for the police. No matter how disturbed you are by a brutal sexual attack online, you cannot equate it to shivering in a hospital with an assailant's sweat or other excretions still damp on your body.

That's not to say I dismiss the trauma a person suffers after being raped online. Virtual rape is not just a prank, one the target needs to get over or expect as part of a role-playing world. (And if you are inclined to pooh-pooh this, first read author Julian Dibble's chapter about a rape that occurred in a text-only MOO in the early '90s.)

A virtual rape is by definition sudden, explicit and often devastating. If you've never immersed yourself in online life, you might not realize the emotional availability it takes to be a regular member of an internet community. The psychological aspects of relating are magnified because the physical aspects are (mostly) removed.

Even regular users might not realize how wide open they are until something drastic happens -- they fall in love, get dumped, have a huge fight or get attacked in the online parallel of rape. In that context, a sexual assault can indeed have a deep impact on a person's life, especially if they are actual rape survivors.

Some suggest that the best way to deal with a virtual rape is to ignore it, or simply log off and come back as another user.

But in a game, you don't want to lose the long-term investment you've made in your character. And these days, your real world income or professional reputation can depend on your online self.

In a 3-D marketplace, your avatar's name is your brand. You can change the appearance of your cartoon without much impact, but changing your name makes it too difficult for customers or clients to find you.

If an online environment becomes too hostile or scary, or causes you such great anxiety you cannot work or interact with friends, more has been taken from you than your playtime. Your friends will gather around to give you emotional support -- but your customers will wander off and shop elsewhere.

Adult communities facilitate our need to go deeper into our sexual selves, even into secret places around gender and taboos that we cannot acknowledge anywhere else. We feel safe because of the peculiar blend of disclosure and anonymity provided in online communities, and we journey along paths we might not even glance at in the physical world. We don't expect to have our control wrenched away or our minds assaulted or even the intensity of our anguish during and after.

The truth is, anywhere people gather, we bring all of our potential with us -- for love, for sex, for community and creation, and for violence and destruction, too. That's why we still enjoy pondering whether cybersex is real sex and whether an online affair is more or less damaging to a relationship than a physical affair. It's a tacit acknowledgement that while the time-space continuum may change, people don't.

Rape is the ultimate perversion of sexual intimacy. Like sex, rape has mental and emotional elements that go beyond the body and the damage to the mind and spirit generally takes much longer to heal than the body.

But that doesn't make the psychological upheaval of virtual rape anywhere near the trauma of real rape. And I can't see us making virtual rape a matter for the real-life police.

It's a ****** thing to do to someone. But it's not a crime.
See you next Friday,

Regina Lynn

 

[FP]

Can someone talk about how this occurs in a game like Second Life? I mean, how does one get "raped" in an MMO?

Can't you just walk away or ignore the user?

 

[gwrober]

Originally posted by: Pantoot
In other news, an orc is being sought for questioning in the murder of a level 10 wizard.

rofl!

 

[Mxylplyx]

Anyone who is "traumatized" by a so called virtual rape should do the world a favor and off themselves.

 

[lyssword]

this is so retarded, it's off the charts

 

[Atheus]

Hang on... so there is a 'rape' function built into second life, which shows your character forcing himself on a female character? I only ask because I have never played it and also partly because it would be one of the most fvcked up features EVER in any game...

 

[Gunslinger08]

Honestly, I'd be laughing my ass off if this happened to me in a game.

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: Atheus
Hang on... so there is a 'rape' function built into second life, which shows your character forcing himself on a female character? I only ask because I have never played it and also partly because it would be one of the most fvcked up features EVER in any game...

It's not a feature, but SL allows for free scripting base off it's model and sprites. You can pretty much do a lot of things that other "people" don't like.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: binister
Can someone talk about how this occurs in a game like Second Life? I mean, how does one get "raped" in an MMO?

Can't you just walk away or ignore the user?

You give the avatar body commands plus there is live audio with microphone over the PC so the guy could be very explicit to the person on the other end. If the person on the receiving turns down the volume the other guy could then switch to typing the explicit verbage. Only option the person on the receiving end could do is log off the game. Later on logging back in notifies the the guy she is back online. It would be up to the user to report she is being stalked in the game for them to de-activate that account.