Rape In Cyberspace
"A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" is an article written by journalist Julian Dibbell, first published in The Village Voice in 1993[1]. The piece was later incorporated into Dibbell's book titled My Tiny Life which recounts his experiences and observations from his time in LambdaMOO, a text-based virtual reality.
"A Rape in Cyberspace" is considered the most comprehensive record of the first virtual rape or cyber rape on the Internet and is often cited in the literature and in research surrounding the topic [2]. In his article Dibbell details, the aftermath of the attack on the virtual community and its struggle to determine an appropriate punishment for the virtual rapes because, although not technically criminal, these attacks negatively impacted the victim's real-life psyches.
Contents
LambdaMOO
The unprovoked attacks described in “A Rape in Cyberspace” took place in the virtual reality of LambdaMOO, a text-based online community which is an extension of MUD, a multi-user dimensions computer game[3]. LambdaMOO is completely text-based so setting and avatars are rendered through descriptive text and there are no graphics or animations to accompany the text descriptions. Players interact with each other, objects and locations by using avatars[3]. Players are given the freedom to customize the text description of their avatars in any way they would like including their preferred gender and describing their outward appearance[1].
Summary
The Attack
On a night in March of 1993, LambdaMOO avatar Mr. Bungle entered Living Room #17, a very popular meeting site on LambdaMOO. There he forced two other players, Legba and Starsinger, to perform explicit and sexual acts [1]. Mr. Bungle was able to force these actions upon other players through the use of a voodoo doll, a subprogram that enables the user to override controls so that a statement written by one user appear to be attributed to another user[4]. As a result, an avatar may do and say things that the avatar’s user did not intend or want their avatar to do. Mr. Bungle, with the help of his voodoo doll subprogram was able to manipulate and control the actions of the other players even when he was in an entirely different room[1]. The attack lasted until someone summoned a wizard named Zippy, a player with administrator level access, who was able to cage Mr. Bungle. The caging caused Mr. Bungle to lose access to the LambdaMOO community without the deletion of his avatar or account, thereby ending his attack on the community that night but not ceasing his online presence.[4].
Community Response
The actions committed by Mr. Bungle violated the community norms that had been established within LambdaMOO, eliciting outrage from the community and its members[5]. The day following the attack, Legba posted a statement on the in-MOO mailing list, a form in which members could talk about and debate issues important to the entire community [4] In her statement, Legba, although still confused about how she should feel after the attack, did call for some kind of repercussion.
"I’m not calling for policies, trials, or better jails. I’m not sure what I’m calling for. Virtual castration, if I could manage it. Mostly, [this type of thing] doesn’t happen here. Mostly, perhaps I thought it wouldn’t happen to me. Mostly, I trust people to conduct themselves with some veneer of civility. Mostly, I want his ass.”[1] - Legba
The user behind Legba later confessed to Dibbell that she wrote her statement with tears streaming down her face due to the trauma she experienced from her virtual rape[1]. Later Legba called for Mr. Bungle to be toaded, or to have his account and avatar removed from LambdaMOO. However, Legba did not have the technological capacity to toad Mr. Bungle from the community and needed the assistance of a wizard to remove Mr. Bungle from the database. At this point in time, the LambdaMoo community did not have any formal organizational structure in place and primarily ran on majority rules decision-making process[6]. Despite the international support Legba received, the community quickly became divided on how to best handle the situation[6]. On the third day after the incident, LambdaMOO users gathered to discuss the fate of Mr. Bungle. In the middle of the meeting, Mr. Bungle joined the conversation saying that his actions were a consequence of virtual reality and that they had no bearing on his real life[1]. Mr. Bungle left the discussion quickly after his explanation was met with hostility. Despite a lengthy conversation, the users were unable to come to a resolution.
Consequences
After the meeting, a wizard named JoeFeedback weighed the arguments and decided to take action upon himself. He quickly and silently removed Mr. Bungle from the LambdaMOO database and with this action, the character of Mr. Bungle ceased to exist[1]. Despite the character being kicked off, the avatar’s user did not experience the same punishment. A few days later, the user returned to the platform in the form of a new character named Dr. Jest but he quickly left the site and has not been seen since[1]. The actions of Mr. Bungle had an everlasting effect on LambdaMOO, by forcing a diverse group of users to come together to form a community with its own rules and regulations. As a result, LambdaMOO's main creator Pavel Curtis set up a system of petitions and ballots where users can put any topic up to a popular vote and in which community wizards are required to implement the outcome of the vote[7]. The system helped to create a government for the community and provided ways to protect against acts of violence on the site[7].
Ethical Implications
In his article, Dibble debates the difference between real life versus virtual reality. He argues that the world of LambdaMOO is not completely real nor completely make-believe but exists somewhere in-between with complex thoughts and feelings[1]. He brings to light the ethical question of does virtual reality affect real life and can virtual harm create harm in real life. The actions committed by Mr. Bungle on that night in March were virtual rapes, sexually explicit behavior forced upon one virtual character by another virtual character in a virtual environment as defined by Danaher, and had real-life effects on the users who were victims [3]. Mr. Bungle, through the development of a voodoo program, was able to harm and virtually rape his victims’ avatars. Avatars can be viewed as virtual representations or extensions of real-life people and even in some cases a truer representation of themselves when society views their certain characteristics of their person as negative or odd [8]. Since avatars are an extension of their real-life counterparts, any harm done onto the avatar affects the user who created the avatar. This is seen in the case of Legba and Starsinger who were deeply distraught and suffered post-traumatic stress from Mr. Bungle's actions against their avatars.
External Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." The Village Voice. 21 December 1993
- ↑ Fenech, Melissa Mary. "Questions about accountability and illegality of virtual rape" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11046. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11046
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Danaher, John. “The Law and Ethics of Virtual Sexual Assault.” Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality, 21 Dec. 2018, pp. 363–388.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Johnson, Laurie. “Rape and the Memex – Laurie Johnson.” Refractory, 30 May 2011, refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2008/05/22/rape-and-the-memex-laurence-johnson/.
- ↑ Kiesler, Sara & Kraut, Robert & Resnick, Paul & Kittur, Aniket. (2012). Regulating Behavior in Online Communities.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mnookin, Jennifer L. “Virtual(Ly) Law: the Emergence of Law in LambdaMoo: Mnookin.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 June 1996, doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1996.tb00185.x.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brennan, Linda L., and Victoria Johnson. Social, Ethical and Policy Implications of Information Technology. Information Science Pub., 2004.
- ↑ Spence, Edward H., et al. “Virtual Rape, Real Dignity: Meta-Ethics for Virtual Worlds.” The Philosophy of Computer Games Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2012, pp. 125–142.
