Virtual Sexual Assault?

1-25-2010 National:

On Monday, Australia's Daily Telegraph reported that a woman had been the victim of an "online sexual assault" while playing the Playstation game, Home.

The story broke after her roommate complained on the game's online forum: "This morning I learned that my roommate was sexually assaulted near the Festive Tree ... She would move and the harasser would follow. Each time trying to get behind her and use the crouch gesture ... The harasser was warned multiple times and laughed at the thought that someone might report him for his actions, which was eventually done." The woman's roommate went on to suggest that Playstation institute everything from virtual restraining orders to Home Jails to "automatic tomato guns" to deal with virtual assaults. In the meantime, the victim left the game and was not sure whether she would ever want to return.

Now, I am no expert on virtual gaming, but what I do know is that many people have become really wrapped up in these virtual worlds. That's why there's that one game called Second Life, after all.

In these virtual worlds, people make real money (don't ask me how) and have real sex, insofar as going through the motions of virtual sex can stimulate the same arousal and, erm, come to the same satisfying conclusion that physical sex can. If, through their virtual interactions, people can feel sexual emotions without having actual sex, then why shouldn't it follow that virtual assaults can leave people feeling violated without having actually been sexually assaulted?

I don't want to imply that virtual assault is the same thing as sexual assault by any stretch of the imagination, and I don't think it was wise for the woman's roommate to refer to it as such. However, I would argue that it is a form of sexual harrassment, which can be incredible distressing for its victims. And let's not forget that the virtual world is full, like the real world, of people who actually have been raped, and online assault, though it may do no direct physical damage, can act as a trigger for flashbacks, panic attacks, and assorted traumatic thoughts and emotions.

I realize that demanding a sexual harassment-free environment from games known for their anarchy and wanton murderous bloodbaths is a stretch. But I do see a stark difference between engaging in virtual violence condoned within the confines of a game and consented to by all its players, and engaging in harassment that completely inhibits another player from even playing the game in the first place.

Of course, sexual harassment being a crime that is seldom taken seriously even when it happens in the real world, I fully expected the majority of the blogosphere to mock, dismiss and trivialize the incident. They didn't let me down:

"He just wanted to FHUTA with his E-penis. No biggie."

"I get sexually harassed on a weekly basis while I play female avatars in MMOs. Grow a pair, woman, seriously."

"This idiot is complaining about the sexual harassment of an avatar, or a bunch of polygons in a world made of polygons, thus totally trivialising real sexual assault in the process."

To that last one, I would respond that trivializing sexual harassment or assault anywhere trivializes sexual harassment or assault everywhere.

By the way, although I am reasonably certain that virtual assault will never be prosecuted as sexual assault, a legal expert quoted in the Telegraph article said it may be prosecuted in the future under stalking or privacy laws (at least in Australia). So there may be a way to get these scumbags off the virtual streets, after all. ..Source.. Ruth Fertig