Friday, February 26, 2010

Is It Rape If It Occurs In Cyberspace?

A Rape in Cyberspace is an article about a real event that happened in a virtual community called LambdaMOO. It addresses how this virtual meeting place solidified itself as a community, how they responded to the aggressive and violent acts of one of their members “Mr. Bungle”. In class we discussed that this was one of the first publicized article addressing cyber rape and that cyber rape is a very real and continuing problem in cbyber life communities. I found that as I read the article I struggled with deciding if this was a real rape because of where it happened. As I re read the article and there was discussion in class and I found that yes this was a rape. Does something have to happen in a physical space to make it real? The emotions that the two victims experienced were very real to them. Yes they could have used the @gag command so that they no longer had to read what Mr. Bungle was writing. However others would still be able to read what Mr. Bungle was writing about them and the acts he was imposing on them. This goes back to the saying that you often hear if a girl dresses in short skirts and low tops she is asking to be raped. No the girl is not asking to be raped no one asks to be violated unwillingly. Can we educate or girls to dress differently to help them protect themselves? Yes we can, but it does not excuse a perpetrator from committing unwanted sexual acts upon a victim that does not want those acts done to their body (real life) or being (cyber life). It was interesting how the community struggled in making the final decision to toad Mr. Bungle and that they never had the opportunity to come to a consensus, instead Tom Traceback took it upon himself to removed Mr. Bungle. Which upon that act it made the LambdaMoo community create a more formal system of communal self-definition. They now had to have a formal petition process to have someone removed. Even though you could have someone toaded they can always come back as another person. Dr. Jest proved that he seemed to have some of the same characteristics of Mr. Bungle not as vile but enough that you figured it was the reincarnated Mr. Bungle.
I need to wrap this up with an experience of my own which I will reiterate the one I shared in class. The 12 year old boy Tate who had friended someone (Jeff) whom he thought was real and went to a different school. When in reality it was two girls posing as Jeff and would update and communicate with the people who had friended Jeff. They got tired of updating his account and to get rid of him they had him commit suicide. This caused Tate an extreme amount of emotional anguish he thought of Jeff as his friend and looked forward to chatting and positng on his wall everyday for the two months that Jeffs account was up. This is a growing problem and it does need to be addressed and anyone going into the virtual world needs to have the opportunity to become literate in this digital age.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your point on whether the cyber rape was real or not. It made me think of how younger kids are so influenced by the internet and how uneducated they really are. I am not sure if there is an existing web site on virtual protection or awareness incorporating ethics that is geared towards youth but it sure is needed. The affects of a perceived virtual violent crime is just as damaging as the physical form. It has been documented well in the mental health field people suffering from PTSD just being exposed to those who have been victims. The Holocaust’s second generation who grew up with survivors is a prime example. So how to control (if society can) or establish boundaries, rules, or safeguards is difficult to answer and how will any of these be enacted. Your personal example is a good message about educating and understanding crime has a new playing field, the internet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have evaluated your blog and comments (where applicable). My comments on this week's assignment can be found at: http://academicsandbox.com/DTC475blog/?p=75

    ReplyDelete