As reported by Wired’s Regina Lynn: Controversy is brewing in virtual reality world Second Life over the occurrence and potential illegality of online rape. The 3-D virtual world, built and owned by its more than 6 million users, currently allows members to engage in a wide range of sexual activities. You can buy S&M gear and solicit strippers, escorts, and prostitutes (all of whom are in fact other SL users). While individual avatars are supposedly prohibited from taking control of other avatars without permission, savvy users can still use scripts to force submission. As a result, Belgian police are now investigating an SL user’s allegations of a sexual assault that took place entirely online. Here’s what Lynn has to say on the matter:
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.
Meanwhile, Salon‘s Broadsheet reports that SL rarely and barely punishes abusers, while noting that most U.S. states have enacted statutes calling for real-life punishment of extreme online harassement. Crime in Second Life isn’t a new phenomenon, and users have criticized SL’s slow response to complaints of “illegal” activity, while SL creator Philip Rosedale has reportedly been reluctant to start policing the virtual world. Still, when issues like sexual assault start sparking real-life police action, it sounds like a case for some necessary introduction of retribution to remove incentives if ever there was one.
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amit – I think most video games I’d agree. I’ve not played SL, but what I hear is that it becomes a virtual home to people. The cries from users for help (for more on this) speaks to the fact that this is not really like other video game environments. It’s not really clear what a “video game” is anymore with products like SL and WoW. No one was complaining about getting killed on SUper Mario Brothers when I was a kid, so I’m inclined to believe there’s more going on here. Like that article I just liked to notes, apparently people have somewhat lucrative businesses in the SL world. WIthout rule of law and policing, of course there’s going to be crime.
amit – I think most video games I’d agree. I’ve not played SL, but what I hear is that it becomes a virtual home to people. The cries from users for help (for more on this) speaks to the fact that this is not really like other video game environments. It’s not really clear what a “video game” is anymore with products like SL and WoW. No one was complaining about getting killed on SUper Mario Brothers when I was a kid, so I’m inclined to believe there’s more going on here. Like that article I just liked to notes, apparently people have somewhat lucrative businesses in the SL world. WIthout rule of law and policing, of course there’s going to be crime.
Some time last year, Richard Posner made an appearance in second life. In an interview on NPR, he explained that his interest in the virtual world was it its enormous potential as laboratory for ideas that are too costly to test in the real world. I think this “rape” is a hugely important test of that theory. Will the virtual world respond by top-down policing and regulation? Or will the market work its magic? If there is a need for safety (which now we see there is) and incentive for crimes without policing (again, made clear by the virtual attack), how will an unregulated world respond?
Some time last year, Richard Posner made an appearance in second life. In an interview on NPR, he explained that his interest in the virtual world was it its enormous potential as laboratory for ideas that are too costly to test in the real world. I think this “rape” is a hugely important test of that theory. Will the virtual world respond by top-down policing and regulation? Or will the market work its magic? If there is a need for safety (which now we see there is) and incentive for crimes without policing (again, made clear by the virtual attack), how will an unregulated world respond?
This isn’t the first time the topic’s found its way into the media. In 1993, Julian Dibbell wrote an article for the Village Voice about a “cyber-rape” that took place on LambdaMOO — a text-based role-playing environment. It got a lot of play at the time, and the discussion was very similar: “is this really a rape,” “how can online environments police themselves,” etc.
The Wikipedia entry for the incident is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace
And Dibbell’s article is here:
http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html
This isn’t the first time the topic’s found its way into the media. In 1993, Julian Dibbell wrote an article for the Village Voice about a “cyber-rape” that took place on LambdaMOO — a text-based role-playing environment. It got a lot of play at the time, and the discussion was very similar: “is this really a rape,” “how can online environments police themselves,” etc.
The Wikipedia entry for the incident is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace
And Dibbell’s article is here:
http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html
I think the intriguing aspect of this for me is the notion of evolution of future social interaction in particular with the variable of technology. I remember playing CastleWolfstein (or whatever) on a black and white Commodore computer. In the last couple decades mainstream gaming has made huge perceptual strides . . . there are moment I believe I am in game.
Will technology, market forces and social motivations create even more realistic virtual worlds to the point where what is considered “virtual” today may be considered real tomorrow. The core of this phenomenon is human perception. Reality to us is all processed perception. And who is to say that the tea cup I’m seeing on my desk is any more real than the letters I am reading in this post? They create real experiences. If virtual assault causes real perceptual emotions and trauma will society regulate that too?
I suppose this is really not new . . .Matrix and other media have represented it before. Will a person someday be a criminal for having pedophilia dreams?
I think the intriguing aspect of this for me is the notion of evolution of future social interaction in particular with the variable of technology. I remember playing CastleWolfstein (or whatever) on a black and white Commodore computer. In the last couple decades mainstream gaming has made huge perceptual strides . . . there are moment I believe I am in game.
Will technology, market forces and social motivations create even more realistic virtual worlds to the point where what is considered “virtual” today may be considered real tomorrow. The core of this phenomenon is human perception. Reality to us is all processed perception. And who is to say that the tea cup I’m seeing on my desk is any more real than the letters I am reading in this post? They create real experiences. If virtual assault causes real perceptual emotions and trauma will society regulate that too?
I suppose this is really not new . . .Matrix and other media have represented it before. Will a person someday be a criminal for having pedophilia dreams?