Second Life Harrassment of Newbs and Others

How do you do those? What's NCI (everyone uses the acronym but doesn't say what it stands for). Is this something you can only do from in-game?

So whats with the benches and camping? Why do you make money for doing these things?

Am I the only one who wondered how someone who never even logged on would know about "caging"?

I just wanted to point out that I really love this analogy. Very well said

However, I agree that it shouldn't be called "rape". Maybe "virtual rape" at best or at least "virtual violation".

Thanks for not blasting me Lindal...LOL. Once i understood what was happening and how to deal with it, i have never again been in a position in SL that brought out those emotions. In fact now i get great joy out of giving them a lecture in manners and explaining what an AR is to anyone who acts like an idiot LOL.

I think the shock for me at that time was that i COULD feel that way. That was a huge surprise and TBH i think many men here prob cant fathom that someone made of pixels could make a woman feel vulnerable. But it does happen and anyone who poo poo's it...well i have a whip now baby!

For the OP, i think it is great that you are researching, but there is seriously NOTHING bad that can happen to your RL person in SL. Nothing. Once you realize that, you will be golden.

Yes, indeed. I'm sorry it happened to him.

So I guess rape is a light-hearted, non-serious topic.

No, it's true that the interactions of avatars in Second Life will not meet any jurisdictions legal definition of rape.

It's also true that some people are more emotionally affected by what they do in Second Life than others. Some people can easily disassociate the virtual pixels from the real self and thus limit emotional reactions to what happens to their Second Life avatars.

But it's also true that there are some people in Second Life attempt to be menacing to others, and it can be truly terrifying to the victims of that.

If you are a person who wouldn't be so upset about the unwanted virtual sexual assault on one's avatar, that's great. Showing a bit of respect, if not understanding, to someone who isn't quite so thick-skinned, would be a nice thing on your part, if you were so inclined.

If you think you are the kind of person who might be frightened of the unwanted virtual sexual assault:

1. Knowing what you can do about such harassment before it happens will help you to be less upset about it when it happens. A lot of being upset about harassment is the feeling of powerlessness, not knowing what you can do about it. If you know in advance that there are a lot of things you can do about it, it won't bother you as much.

.....

9. The overwhelming, overwhelming majority of Second Life residents are actually nice people. It takes a little bit of time to find them; you have to get away from the newbie areas as quickly as possible. But there really are very few harassers, and at least in my experience, it's a rare, not a common, occurence.

10. It's good to have friends in Second Life. They support you when you do run into problems, and in those cases, the problems usually don't seem like big problems.

Well this is a scary thread. What is this "heart"?

So far I have not faced any form of harassment, but then I crashed before I could get off of the help island.

The people who are vulnerable to this sort of thing are, of course, the newbies, who dpon't know what to do, or are so flustered they don't think of tp'ing or logging off. Depending on their personalities, they can find it very upsetting, as you can see from some of the posts here. It would not surprise me if some new Residents are driven away by this sort of thing, never to return. Once they do know, of course, it ceases to be a problem. Knowledge is the answer; help out a newbie today.

Maybe we worry too much about trolling posts.

There's no reward for distinguishing the honest question from thet one with hidden motivation.

If there is a potentially legitimate question within the original post that could be a legitimate question that someone else has on one's mind, then answering the legitimate part of the question might be helpful to lurkers reading the thread, even if the original poster didn't actually care about the question.

If you see flame-bait in the question, just do your best to resist the bait.

The incident I'm about to recount was a very difficult experience for me, so please bear with me if my emotions get the better of me and I need to take a break now and again.

The other day I was in Aherne not long after I arrived in SL, I was just minding my own business when this woman IM'd me. She seemed nice (although she didn't seem to be wearing much clothing).

Anyway she asked if I wanted to go to her house for tea and biscuits, she said she had some spare clothes which she could give me and also some other tools which would make my first few days in SL much easier.

Anyway, she disappeared and next thing a little message popped up asking me to Teleport to her location. I thought she was my friend, so I clicked ok.

When the screen returned, I had arrived in what seemed a very nice (if somewhat dark and eerie) castle. The lady in question now seemed to be wearing nothing at all, except for some strange leather belt type things wrapped across her tummy and upper body.

She still seemed pleasant enough and asked me to sit down by right-clicking and sitting on the chair next to her. She then said she was going to give me a gift and that I should accept it.

The next thing I knew, was that my avatar was acting against my will and moving to a strange wooden horse contraption.. my poor little avatar proceed to straddle the said device.. exposing its most vulnerable and until now unseen pink areas.

When I focussed on my hostess to she if she could help, a strange metamorphisis was occurring.. her pleasing female curves were changing.. she had grown much taller.. her chest expanded and sprouted thick wiry hair.. her pretty face contorted into that of a snarling, drooling wolf-like creature..

Worse of all when my gaze travelled down her now grossly muscled and hirsute torso I almost fainted at the sight of the thick, pulsating.... *sob .. oh God sorry.. I can't even bring myself to describe it..

Now, if only I'd stopped touching myself long enough to Log off, TP away, or simply unplug my PC from the mains, I could have saved myself from the violent abuse my sorry virtual rectum encountered that horrible day.

However I was either so slow witted, or indeed enjoying the scene far too much to think of such straightforward remedies to my situation.

I hope by passing on what happened to me I can save you from a similar fate.

Peace be with you all.

I've only been in the forums for 3 days and I've already reported someone.

Annoyed or harrassed work for me. I understand the Obscene phone call analogy, to a point. But I still don't subscribe to any of these things happening in SL to be anywhere near as ominous as in RL. But I recognize others may. It's just the way I see it, I keep that level of detachment. Saves on the hysteria when these conversations come up.

Why?

Why?

Maybe it wasn't meant to be offensive, but I felt as if he was mocking me and everyone else in this thread. I take this topic seriously and didn't appreciate it. Maybe nothing will come of it and I'm over-reacting and if so, so be it, but I reported it so someone else can look at it and decide.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be offensive, but I felt as if he was mocking me and everyone else in this thread. I take this topic seriously and didn't appreciate it. Maybe nothing will come of it and I'm over-reacting and if so, so be it, but I reported it so someone else can look at it and decide.

Hello Aryen,

Well I was (trying) to be amusing in my own little way. I also thought it might be obvious that my little story didn't actually happen.

You're correct though, I was mocking you and anyone else who trivialises RL rape by equating it to SL griefing.

There was me thinking I'd been reported for the unsolicited use of the word "rectum"..

It's not offensive when used as a noun. Only when it becomes an adjective.

I don't think it's fair to classify someone being affected emotionally as "hysterical". It seems to me that in Second Life more than anything else I've seen your avatar really is an extension of you. And as someone else already said, it's not about what happens, it's about feeling uncomfortable AND not being able to stop it.

As long as it's ok to use it as a verb, I'm fine..

Maybe it wasn't meant to be offensive, but I felt as if he was mocking me and everyone else in this thread. I take this topic seriously and didn't appreciate it. Maybe nothing will come of it and I'm over-reacting and if so, so be it, but I reported it so someone else can look at it and decide.

Ok....

Look Aryen, if you haven't already, how about you just go inworld and get some experience for your research paper. I hardly feel it's fair to base the SL experience upon a bunch of posts in a discussion forum!

You're in danger of entering with a whole load of prejudice if you're not careful.

From my short length of experience in calendar terms but hardly in hours, I have found that more griefing has been performed by irrelevant newbies than seasonsed role players in what might be considered deviant places.

Hello Aryen,

Well I was (trying) to be amusing in my own little way. I also thought it might be obvious that my little story didn't actually happen.

You're correct though, I was mocking you and anyone else who trivialises RL rape by equating it to SL griefing.

There was me thinking I'd been reported for the unsolicited use of the word "rectum"..