Reader Roundtable: “Virtual Rape” Claim Brings Belgian Police to Second Life
April 24th, 2007 by Benjamin Duranske
Belgian newspapers De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws reported Friday that “the Brussels public prosecutor has asked patrol detectives of the Federal Computer Crime Unit to go on Second Life” to investigate a “virtual rape” involving a Belgian user of Second Life. (Translations from FreeTranslation.com’s web page translator.)
Website WTFsrsly (that’s “what the f***, seriously,” for readers who don’t speak “l33t”), appears to have first reported the story outside of Belgium, and makes the following point:
Those who know Second Life a bit probably wonder how this was possible though. Sure there are modifications that you can make to your Second Life character in order to be able to rape other characters (these modifications can actually be purchased in-game from other players who develop them), but normally such modifications require consent from the other player. In other words: you can only get raped if you want to.
WTFsrsly is (while sort of crass) technically correct, which raises some interesting questions — most importantly, what is “virtual rape” anyway?
The question isn’t as simple as it might seem — and it is at the heart of what makes virtual worlds different from other forms of interaction.
Many would argue that sexually-oriented harassment that takes place in a virtual world is not “virtual rape.” In other words, if someone causes his avatar ‘Bad Max’ to regularly say sexually explicit things to his avatar’s neighbor ‘Jane Nicegirl’ he’s definitely a contemptible sleazeball, he’s almost certainly in violation of the Terms of Service of his virtual world, he’s probably guilty of several harassment and stalking crimes, and he might be liable in civil court for intentional infliction of emotional distress. But, some would argue, no matter what the user has ‘Bad Max’ say to ‘Jane Nicegirl,’ it doesn’t really make sense to call that “rape.”
On the other hand, there are objects (it’s all code, of course, but “objects” are how that code gets represented) within some virtual worlds that give one user control over another user’s avatar. In early text-based virtual worlds, such objects were known as “voodoo dolls,” and they have been used to perpetrate something that many would call “virtual rape.”
The most famous case of involving a voodoo doll took place in LamdaMOO, a text-based multi-user environment, and was brilliantly covered by Julian Dibble. The Dibble piece is well worth reading in its entirety, but in sum, a voodoo doll was employed by one user to make it appear that several other users were participating in explicit, violent sexual acts in an extremely public part of the environment.
Voodoo doll-type objects exist in modern virtual worlds too. In Second Life, for example, scripted collars that allow one user to take control of another user’s avatar are regularly used by the BDSM crowd in purely consensual online relationships and encounters. The code that makes these devices work, however, could be built into anything from a teacup to a tennis bracelet. And in theory, at least, these objects could then be given to an unsuspecting avatar as virtual roofies.
Although software controls in Second Life are supposed to require that an object obtain permission before animating an avatar, it is not difficult to imagine a situation where a combination of skillful scripting and social engineering could lead to one user’s control of another (unwilling) user’s avatar, particularly if the victim is new to virtual worlds and unfamiliar with the often bewildering array of controls, dialog boxes, and objects.
It is not known what occurred here that lead to the Belgian investigation (and it may well never be) but the questions that are raised by the allegation are certain to arise again.
Reader Roundtable
What is “virtual rape?” Does it even make internal sense as a term? Is it control of an avatar against a user’s will, a textual or graphical depiction of a forced sexual act, or something else completely?
Can virtual rape occur without even the appearance (in a graphical world) or description (in a text-based world) of physical contact, or is that “just” harassment — essentially the equivalent of an obscene phone call?
How should crimes perpetrated only in a virtual space be punished? Is it just harassment (of the user), no matter what the crime (against the avatar)?
Should there be a sliding scale of punishments — where virtual rape would likely be punished more severely than other types of virtual assault?
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47 Responses to “Reader Roundtable: “Virtual Rape” Claim Brings Belgian Police to Second Life”
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Granted someone can’t be animated against their will in SL if you’re an ethical coder (For over half my Second Life I’ve worn a collar and if I really don’t want to be animated through it any more I can take it off after all) and taking off all attachments will stop this ever happening to you (you can add them 1 by one, rez to floor to check they’re not unexpectedly scripted and things too) I’d expect just about any accusation of rape to fail in some terms. On the other hand, “No means NO” applies here too. *I* happily and willingly consent to give (some) control away, but retain the right to say “No” and expect to have that respected. Continuing past that ending of consent – I’d be inclined to the virtual rape end of the response situation, although I’d wonder why quit wasn’t invoked, and although virtual rape I strongly suspect could be violently emotionally and mentally disturbing, it’s not as nasty as the real thing.
For point 2… IRL if I were to sexual harrass you, or be sexual harrassed by you, there would be no consent (that’s why it’s harrassment) and in most circumstances little or no contact. Contact would let us addititional charges. Rape is a whole level of severity further. Surely that same escalation of severity makes sense? Being chatted up by inept newbies is borderline harrassment, but unless they really persist most of us cope with it, as we cope (or coped when younger and prettier) with some level of “lechery” from those around us. Rape is worse than that, virtual rape too for my money.
I *have* been stalked in SL. It was deeply, deeply disturbing and unpleasant. I’ve never been stalked IRL, but would say it is unlikely to be more disturbing whilst they remain a stalker and not a home-invader, assaulter etc. To that extent I’d say virtual rape is a bigger crime, and deserving of a bigger punishment, even though I can’t define more precisely than “carrying on past clear refusal of consent” as what makes rape.
It is no more possible to rape somebody in SecondLife as it is possible to murder somebody. Whist it is feasible to set an object such that one’s avatar is positioned in relation to another’s avatar, and animated such, as it appears that the avatars are copulating, even if one of the avatars’ owners has done nothing to consent to it, the first life legal consequences must always follow the effect on the human controlling the avatar, not the avatar itself, and that effect is the effect of sexual harassment, not of rape, the latter of which is many orders of magnitude more serious.
The problem some jurisdictions have with “virtual rape” may be similar to problems with “virtual child pornograpy” or extreme depictations of bondage. Even if the act is not a crime, the visual and textual basis of it could be considered obscene and illegal. There are legislators and prosecutors who have tried to ban extreme pornography, involving violent rape, improper use of bodily functions or other extreme fetishes, even if the presented acts are simulated, based on their content. “Virtual Rape” being prohibited could fall under a category of banned expression as opposed to being similar to a physical rape.
Of course, I am not knowledgable about Belgian law as I am a US law student. But if there were a RL justification for banning “Virtual Rape”, that would be it.
This is completely rediculous. So I guess players who kill other players in MMOG’s are guilty of murder and should be charged? How idiotic is this? I fear for our society when I see how many peopel think this is a real issue. Turn off the computer and reaquaint yourself with reality.
Let’s put the whole thing on a level we might be able to imagine better:
We have two children, one child playing with puppet Barbie, the other child playing with puppet Ken.
Suddenly the child playing the Ken puppet throws his puppet on top of the Barbie puppet ans simulates a copulation, of course without the consent of the child playing the Barbie puppet, this child is protesting loudly!
Now what happened? I would say nothing! The worst one might call this is sexual harassment, but that is it. Nothing more.
So stop taking everything too serious, calling for courts and judicial measures. In reality nothing happened!
Alt-F4. Virtual rape averted.
[...] [via: gulli.com/…2007-05-04/] [related Link: wired.com/…/sexdrive_0504] [related Link: virtuallyblind.com/…second-life] [...]
An avatar is a fictional character. The law does not protect fictional game characters, only the actual human users.
It is logistically impossible for a SL user to *force* another SL *user* to do anything. If the “victim” doesn’t like what’s going on, there is not a single moment when she is not able to put down the mouse and turn off the computer.
Furthermore, since nobody is being forced to do anything, and rape is — by definition — forced, there is no rape. The “perpetrator” may or may not have run afoul of the SL terms of service, but there is no crime.
[...] Things like these happened before as stated in this article about a similar event that took place in a older text based mmorpg. It was discussed at the time but no real action was taken. Well this time police was involved as you can find on the second citizen forum and in all the others articles covering the story. [...]
[...] Things like these happened before as stated in this article about a similar event that took place in an older text based mmorpg. It was discussed at the time but no real action was taken. Well this time police was involved as you can find on the second citizen forum and in all the others articles covering the story. [...]
[...] Yet it has prompted several threads of discussion, from a legal analysis to four pages of commentary at the Second Citizen forums. [...]
I’ve noticed a few responses here about the fact that the user could merely have turned off the computer, and due to this ability to escape, it means that the “sex” was optional and thus that no rape occurred. Firstly, date rape is an example of sex that is technically avoidable, yet due to socially constructed psychological issues, the victim is often unable to escape the situation. The victim may be too emotionally destablised by the inital attack to be able to respond appropriately, or, prior to attempting escape, the victim tries a number of escape methods which fail to work. Inability to effect an appropriate escape hardly neutralises the term of “rape” in this instance. Secondly, other criticism has noted that the victims of online rape cannot consider it rape because the characters are virtual, and have no bearing on the real world. Rape differs from sex beyond the basics of the physical struggle: it is also a mental issue which is primarily marked by a masculine domination through force, and subjectation of the victim. It is the psychological effects that are the most brutal. Understanding this, the post-human issue of embodied consciousness is important. Embodied consciousness is where a human consciousness becomes so naturalised in an environment – whether it is performing repetitive tasks, operating an online character, typing on a keyboard, or any other technological interaction with an environment – that they have extended their consciousness to the point where the technology acts as a mental extention of their body. As such, a person can become incredibly involved with their online equivalents, to the point where they suffer real emotional damage from an unfair exploitation of their character. All this, however, circumvents the fact that there is a person out there who will have – regardless of the victim’s reaction – considered themselves as having successfully raped someone online and congratulated themselves for it. This is an idea I, and hopefully many others, find incredibly disgusting.
[...] She links to some interesting articles, notably one from Virtually Blind, on virtual law, where the question of “What is ‘virtual rape?’ Does it even make internal sense as a term? Is it control of an avatar against a user’s will, a textual or graphical depiction of a forced sexual act, or something else completely?” is asked. [...]
I think existing laws cover this well enough. Sexual Harassment + EULA Violation + Other. Let’s just not forget that no matter how attached you are to your avatar, this isn’t even the same order of magnitude as physical rape.
This is ridiculous. Second Life is ridiculous.
[...] Discussion, and a fair amount of FUGing of the issue has spread through the blogosphere and mailing lists: Virtually Blind attempts to consider the legalities of it [...]
[...] Yet it has prompted several threads of discussion, from a legal analysis to four pages of commentary at the Second Citizen forums. [...]
[...] Sebbene la definizione di un reato di questo tipo sfugga ancora ad una definizione precisa, gli sviluppatori di Second Life stanno pensando di correre ai ripari: verrà probabilmente istituita una verifica sull’età del videogiocatore per permettere la realizzazione di aree riservate ai minorenni, e di altre pensate per gli adulti in cerca di sensazioni forti. [...]
[...] Yet it has prompted several threads of discussion, from a legal analysis to four pages of commentary at the Second Citizen forums. [...]
[...] Things like these happened before as stated in this article about a similar event that took place in an older text based mmorpg. It was discussed at the time but no real action was taken. Well this time police was involved as you can find on the second citizen forum and in all the others articles covering the story. [...]
I happened to see a humorous and harmless instance of the social engineering aspect of this.
It was a avatar (shape and skin plus some scripts ) that makes the user look like a puppy. You can then let people “pet” you. This pops up a dialog asking the target to grant permission to animate them. Since they expect to be animated to “pet the puppy”, they will say yes.
What actually gets animated is the puppy humping the targets leg.
[...] http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/04/24/open-roundtable-allegations-of-virtual-rape-bring-belgian-police-to-second-life http://www.wtfsrsly.com/sl.php [...]
[...] if you are not with me in this, humour me for a moment. Take recent discussions of an alleged case of SL rape on Virtually Blind for instance. In this matter, SL and RL oddly clash on the question of wether [...]
this is so useless. this is avatars having moving up and down on a stupid animation not real people having sex. go after pedophiles who try and get kids nude in front of the webcam instead of after whiners who want to get attention yelling: MY AVATAR GOT RAPED
in secondlife everyone is equally strong women can teleport out just as men can if someone is harrasing you send in an abuse report just like with any griefer
this is not real this is a game with toon avatars do you know how many people get killed in games every day?
your supposed to be over 18 when you enter the game so you shouldnt be stupid and go whine when your avatar does an animation that you dont want. if your so mentally instable that you cannot bear seeing your avatar do an wrong animation you shouldnt be in this game but go to a psychiatrist
Calling this rape is a disgrace to all REAL rape victims. Please for their sake don’t even try comparing it. It was at worst sexual harassment, not rape, not sexual assault… there was no assault taking place.
What is wrong with some of you people? Seriously, as already suggested, get mental help if you think a pretend world is real life. I sure as hell don’t want your type around my kids IRL, i.e. the world where you have to eat drink and breathe to survive.
Expect a lot more irrationality like this when women gain an upper hand in the legislature and legal professions.
I hope I am dead by then…
[...] investigated allegations that paedophiles are using SL for virtual sex with children, and a case of virtual rape has been opened by Brussels police. There is an ongoing debate if virtual sex with minors, virtual [...]
Did anything ever come of this? The original reports in Dutch don’t seem to be online anymore, and I can’t find anything to confirm any of the basic facts of this case. Yet, it is being used as a reason not to use SL in K-12 education, so maybe we should find out if it really happened or not, and what the result of the police investigation (if it happened) was.
[...] *NOTE: I couldn’t find the story Garfield was referring to, but the following story (from 2007) is equally fucked up: Belgian newspapers De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws reported Friday that “the Brussels public prosecutor has asked patrol detectives of the Federal Computer Crime Unit to go on Second Life” to investigate a “virtual rape” involving a Belgian user of Second Life. More [...]
[...] if you’re interested in that debate, Jess McCabe has an interesting blog about it). But a case last year in Belgium about a girl who claimed she was raped on Second Life raised frantic debates about what constitutes rape. (Mark Methenitis gives an [...]
[...] if you are not with me in this, humour me for a moment. Take recent discussions of an alleged case of SL Y-K-W rape on Virtually Blind for instance. In this matter, SL and RL oddly clash on the question of wether [...]
To proove a crime and convict there must be evidence and in th case of rape circumstancial evidence hardly enough.
DNA is what is needed…try getting that from a virtual Avatar…unless you might think IP Address is…well who was using the computer try to proove that.
In the end it shows up the sillyness to apply rl laws to virtual world.
If the crime is done on a virtual world those rules should apply no where else…
So when are we gonna see virtual tribunal and prison…
[...] Duranske, B. (2007). Reader roundtable: “Virtual rape” claim brings police to Second Life. from Virtually Blind, Virtual Law: Legal Issues that Impact Virtual Worlds website [http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/04/24/open-roundtable-allegations-of-virtual-rape-bring-belgian-polic...] [...]
If we’re going to treat “virtual rape” as some sort of real crime, shouldn’t we also respond the same way to the deaths of avatars in various shooter games? And what do we do with all the crimes committed in games like Grand Theft Auto? It’s all pretend, folks. Let’s not confuse virtual gaming and simulations with reality. If we need to do something, then create a virtual prison and send those avatars away for however long a sentence might be in pretend-world. If we start treating this stuff as if it were real, then we aren’t far from establishing “thought-crimes” as another classification of crime to be prosecuted in court.
[...] Wirklichkeit jedoch Schaden hervorruft. Im Falle der Belgierin wurde ihr virtuelles Selbst dadurch Opfer einer Vergewaltigung. Die Belgische Polizei startete daraufhin ihre Ermittlungen – in Second [...]
No, “deaths” in online games are not the same. In any game or roleplay in which players are battling against other players, the participants understand as part of the context that their avatar may be killed – the threat of “death” is an integral part of the experience. If you couldn’t be killed in a combat-based game, playing it (facing the challenges) would mean a lot less to everyone involved. That’s why those players who find ways to prevent their deaths are considered cheaters, and are often punished by being banned from those games.
Second Life is not a game – which is to say that it’s not a world bound by game rules or motivated by game goals (like WoW or EverQuest). It’s a social space, and you’ll find that there’s lots of research showing that the sense of immersion, of “being there,” that people experience in a 3D world can be overwhelming. The social space is governed by rules of society, some written, some unwritten – just like in the real world.
In the real world, if you reach out to pet a dog and it starts humping your leg, you might feel disgust; you’d get the same feeling if it happened to your avatar in a virtual world – that’s the whole point of that little prank, I would guess. Now, I would not go so far as to say that “virtual rape” is as damaging as real-life rape – maybe we need a different word to describe it – but the fact is that many people would indeed be seriously affected by such an act. This is not a measure of their insanity – if it were something that only crazy people were vulnerable to, then would-be attackers wouldn’t bother. As was mentioned earlier, the attacker does it at least in part because he or she knows they can “get to” someone that way. It’s very real, whether it’s virtual or not.
[...] Second Life“, Focus, 8. Juni 2008↑ Second Life „Virtuelle Straftat wird real verfolgt“↑ Reader Roundtable: “Virtual Rape” Claim Brings Belgian Police to Second Life (englisch)↑ „Internetplattform Second Life: mangelnder Jugendschutz“, WDR-:Familie, Sendung vom 13. [...]
It may seem impossible…and outlandish, but I actually experiences being raped in SL a few weeks ago by an avatar pretending to be an alt of someone I am very friendly with. I fell for the deception (stupidly). This individual posted videos some real some fake on two SL websites to hurt our reputation and Linden Labs is not able to do anything about these sites. I am still traumatized and upset by the whole incident and it has had terrible ripple effects into both of our real lives and our community in sl.
If one looks as Second Life as just game of pixels with cartoon character who have sex sometimes or shoot each other…then rape does not exist. Some people see it as is just a game and that is their perogative, that is the freedom of SL. They put in their profile sl= sl rl = rl for example. For others, their avatars in SL are surrogates for and extensions of their real life selves. It is these people who are vulnerable to all the joys and sorrow and even rape (unfortunately) of the “real world”. Many come to Second Life thinking that it is just a game and then discover as they grow “older” that there are real people behind the avis.
Should this kind of rape be prosecuted? Well if it is international (someone from another country)..it would be hard. However, if this person had been in my own country, I might consider some sort of legal action.
Virtual Rape? Throw this character into virtual prison.
[...] 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 [...]
[...] Belgian user of Second Life was forced, by using a so called “voodoo doll” –a piece of code that takes [...]
[...] expanding at most into the civil arena. However, due to the incomprehensible number of news stories about Second Life rape, the blog will be taking a short detour into the world of quasi-criminal [...]
you know i understand virtual rape can be traumatizing, i can even sympathize with the level of emotional connection one develops with their avatars, however the difference between “virtual rape” and say date rape, is a person subjected to date rape does not have the option (sadly) of turning of their date. if you are being emotional harmed by something which you may easily turn your head away from and turn off then you are lacking in sensibility.
[...] Reader Roundtable [...]
[...] investigated allegations that paedophiles are using SL for virtual sex with children, and a case of virtual rape has been opened by Brussels police. There is an ongoing debate if virtual sex with minors, virtual [...]
The problem of “virtual rape” has always been an issue in SL but it seems to me that since A) the SL mentoring program was ended by Linden Labs and B) the teen grid has merged, the problems seem to be much more prolific. The issue of virtual rape would pop up once every other month or so as a challenge the mentors had to face (note cards were created that we distributed to people including resources for various countries to help people find real life help). Now I hear about it ever other day with various people reaching out to me for help by phone, email, and even fax let alone the traditional notecard method (my IMs are capped).
Allow me to clarify one thing, although I am a certified crisis intervention counselor; I am not a psychiatrist.
That said, it seems easy enough to “hit the switch” when relationships become uncomfortable or violent. Often times my first response is to yell “TURN OFF THE COMPUTER!!” but the reality is that when people are faced with extreme stressors (especially violence or risk of violence to their being, not just their bodies), they often freeze up. It’s like people who look up when crossing the street, see an oncoming truck, and freeze. They simply cannot get out of the way of the truck barreling down on them. This is very common in SL as I have entered into various situations where people were unable to end their interactions or shut things down. I have also met people who simply TP’d away, muted the other, and submitted an AR. And I have met people who hit the power switch.
Legally (from what my international lawyer friends tell me), most law requires an actual body to be harmed for “rape’ to be a viable case. However, there are multiple legal violations that could apply here from various countries, all ranging from something so simple as harassment to complex as torture.
I know I’m harping on old stuff but the SL Mentoring program intervened in a lot of these instances and had a very good track record of helping people play safely and stay healthy. They also helped filter people in need into appropriate real life resources to address serious problems of everything from physical abuse to suicide.
Lastly, someone mentioned something about ARs… A simple AR is a nice solution to Linden Labs, but if you don’t know how to submit one, what good is it? (*cough* Mentors help with this too *cough*)
Some victims of “virtual rape” (and other violent acts) are seriously impacted emotionally. It can lead to consequences that impact people’s behavior in real life, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. How it’s prosecuted seems to be irrelevant so long as the perpetrator is held accountable. How the “victim” is healed is much more my concern and one I am not convinced that LL is working to offer any assistance in such restoration. A simple TRAINED staff person who is available to interact with the victim and help to move them towards real life help seems the least they can do as an ethical, socially responsible, corporate body.