SALON

Monday, May 7, 2007 10:13 PM UTC

Is virtual rape a crime?

At least one victim has complained to the real-life police.

By

Topics: Broadsheet, Violence Against Women, Love and Sex,

The spectrum of sexual harassment women run into online — from the sophomoric to the pathological and psychotic — has become a scorching hot topic as of late. I’ve read the articles; I’ve scanned the blog posts; and many of Salon’s female and (I’m proud to say) male writers have thrown down in an internal e-mail discussion on the topic. So it’s surprising that I’d never heard of online harassment taken to the ultimate extreme: virtual rape. That’s right, thanks to Regina Lynn’s column in Wired, I’ve learned that virtual characters can force other virtual characters to have sex against their will.

I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise, either. Internet tricksters are already staging protests, pranks and political rallies in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world built and owned by its more than 6 million inhabitants. They’re also having lots of virtual sex. There are virtual strippers, escorts and prostitutes and, of course, plenty of customers. You can purchase the perfect penis or breasts for your avatar, go shopping for virtual BDSM gear and even use real-life sex-toy interfaces that can be controlled through the virtual world.

That virtual rape exists is unsurprising. But is it a crime? It turns out police in Brussels, Belgium, are investigating a resident’s report of being raped in Second Life. Technically speaking, Second Life avatars are not supposed to be able to take control of another avatar without permission. BDSM fans can exchange collars that allow them total submission or control, though, and these types of scripts can apparently be hidden within any virtual item. It’s possible, then, for one player to unknowingly hand over his or her agency to another player. (Keep in mind, though, that virtual rape was around long before Second Life.)

In her column, Lynn argues that “a [virtual] sexual assault can indeed have a deep impact on a person’s life, especially if they are actual rape survivors.” The emotional scars of real-world rape often take much longer to heal than the physical and so it can be in the virtual world, she argues. But she ultimately concludes that virtual rape shouldn’t be considered a crime. “I have a hard time calling it ‘rape,’ or believing it’s a matter for the police,” she writes. “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 … I can’t see us making virtual rape a matter for the real-life police.”

I have to agree that virtual rape shouldn’t be punishable as sexual assault in the real world. But it does seem appropriate to set enforceable guidelines that allow virtual communities to combat these types of things (i.e., you rape another character, you’re booted out of that virtual ZIP code). The same would apply to other crimes played out in the virtual world; for instance, virtual murder shouldn’t be prosecutable in the real world. (My God, imagine if our justice system were inundated with all of the D&D players who have spilled virtual blood!) There are some virtual communities where stealing, murder and (shudder) rape might be allowed or even … appropriate. In online communities where these activities aren’t allowed, there should be suitable online punishments.

Thankfully, most states call for real-world punishments for extreme cases of online harassment. That’s a category virtual rape could comfortably fall within — but it’s totally incomparable to the reality of rape, which can’t be escaped simply by logging off or flipping a power switch.

Tracy Clark-Flory

Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter and Facebook. More Tracy Clark-Flory.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 35 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations