Is Anonymity Really Necessary?

That's a sad statistic indeed, but it's also a bit of a red herring unless you have statistics that quantify the number of rapes that happen as a result of people knowing each other's names on the internet. I don't think anyone is trying to be callous about the bad things that can and do happen to many people, but perpetuating fear isn't especially useful for trying to determine actual statistical risks. If people looked at risk in a purely objective way they'd find that they have more reason to fear people they already know than strangers on the internet, and men should be more afraid of their partners than women.

Females are most often violently victimized by someone they know, while males are more likely to be victimized by strangers. (U.S. Department of Justice, National Crime Victimization Survey — September 2006)

Approximately 1.5 million women and 835,000 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. (National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence — July 2000)

More than 75 percent of intimate partner femicide (female murder) victims reported that they were being stalked by their intimate partner. (The National Center for Victims of Crime, Stalking Resource Center — October 2005)

Women tend to report performing acts of violence at higher rates than men, and men tend to report being victims of violence at higher rates than women. In both cases, the implication is that aggression by women toward men exceeds aggression by men toward women. (American Psychological Association, Inc., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Gender Differences in Partner Violence in a Birth Cohort of 21-Year-Olds: Bridging the Gap between Clinical and Epidemiological Approaches — 1997, Vol. 65, No. 1, 68-7

Being male nearly doubles the odds of being a victim of domestic violence as an adult but decreases the odds of perpetrating domestic violence. This finding, although contrary to public perception, is consistent with findings of national surveys in the United States and New Zealand — females hit more often than males, but males do more damage when they hit. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Youth Violence Research Bulletin — February 2002)

Just some food for thought.

The actual statistical risk is moot.
If there is any risk at all, then having any of our RL details available in public is plain silly - unless there is a compelling case to be made that publication would really be for the common good.
Many people prefer to keep things on a need to know basis.

Even if the risk is 1 in 1,000,000 - why *needlessly* risk being the '1'?

It's more a question of common sense rather than one of fear.

The point I was trying to make is that we all face risks from everything we do, every day of our lives. You can't eliminate them, and much of the energy we put in to trying to prevent bad things from happening is directed at things that pose substantially less risk than other things to which we pay no attention at all. If your spouse is far more likely to rape or kill you than a stranger, wouldn't it make more sense to fear your spouse than to fear strangers? Well no, of course not, because there's nothing to be gained by doing so, just as there's nothing to be gained by fearing strangers on the internet who are far less likely to ever do you harm. Risks are something we have to accept, and the question we should be asking is if exposing ourselves to that one in a million risk is worth it if it dramatically reduces other risks from things we're all victimized by with depressing regularity. I'm not advocating eliminating anonymity. I just find the way people evaluate the question really interesting (and not particularly objective or rational).

I just picked up on this note - having been stalked and considering myself quite good looking. I have a healthy life-style and penty of real friends so I am not Miss Lonelyhearts. Professions can attract stalkers as I found out. Men (and women - I am not sexist) are attracted to a person for some reason or other and then imagines that the "victim" is approachable or demands attention from the stalker. Yeah, 2K, I imagine some people THINK they ar ebeing stalked. But stalking is nasty. My stalker has since gne on his way.
I dont put a picture in my profile because my REAL face is no one's business but mine - I think I (and many others) enjoy being anonymous because our lives in real are NOT anonymous. I dont like disclosure.

its really hard for me not to be offended by the tone of this thread and posts such as these. Honestly have you ever been raped in rl? Stalked? Beaten? By a stranger? Have you ever have strange men move to your city to be closer to you without your knowledge or permission? ever recieved 40 phone calls in a day from a person you didnt know offline? if you dont have these experiences my advice is dont talk about what you dont know about. Just because you feel safe doesnt mean every woman should. im petite and 5'3''. Are you coming over to protect me? No? How about my daughter? do you even care at all? no as long as you can win the discussion it doesnt matter how much jeapardy you put other defenseless human beings in i guess. ok so lets hear some more of your supreme wisedom.

My Ignore list gets longer every day.

Stalking aside, I work in a job where a public perception of relative conservatism and decorum is necessary, I am fairly visible in the community and have interactions with children. What I do here is my business only and it is nothing to be ashamed of. But there are those who would take issue with it. Maybe that's wrong, maybe someday it won't be an issue but that day is not here yet, and frankly I'm not the martyr type. We approach this topiv based on who we see SL and also based in part on the Reality we live in. But like evrything else we discuss here, it's turning into a case of "my way is right and your way is stupid because I don't agree with it."

Swan, I'm sorry if you took offense. As I said already I do not in any way intend to minimize or make light of the very real and harmful things that can and do happen to people. Having said that, when evaluating the risk versus potential benefit of anything, it isn't useful to look at it emotionally. If that sounds callous, my apologies. I consider it simply a statement of fact. Most of us probably know someone who's died or been serverly injured in a car accident, but we all drive, and we aren't fearful of our cars.

You can be prudent without being full of fear. There IS a middle ground.
What's with all these extreme examples?

Fearful = Never, ever logging on, or never speaking to strangers in SL.

Reckless = Telling everyone, everything about you. Including your address, SSN, etc.

The thing is, we are the only ones who should decide who to trust, and what our comfort levels are. What's right for you, isn't for someone else. What's so hard to understand about this?

I trust my judgement when it comes to picking friends in real life, no one's tried to hack me with an ax, yet. I don't give out all of my info to everyone who asks simply because I don't wish to. Not because I am fearful, just because I use common sense and I'm careful. Why should anyone have to justify this? If you want to blab to any and everyone who listens about yourself and your RL, who's stopping you?

True. Driving is a necessity for a lot of us, just like flying or a lot of other activities. The reward outweighs the risk. That's what it comes down to in the end. Risk vs reward. And for a lot of us the risk would not equal the reward. I for one would leave SL if our Real Identities were public knowledge. LL can know who I am, they already do. That's as far as it will go.

Chip, you have nothing to be apologetic over. You have made your points very intelligently and with great civility , as you always do.

Its not a red herring, because the statement I was refuting made no such distinction.

It might not be completely RELEVANT to the cyberstalker discussion, but tell Merchant that, not me.

It is relevant as to what FD was saying, in that it certainly isn't only the gorgeous people at threat for this sort of crime, however "low" the risk.

Ah, Chip.
No, most don't FEAR their car, but knowing someone who's been in an accident DOES make you more CAREFUL.
Get it?

That was a point I was trying to make earlier.

Caution when driving involves certain things.

caution on the internet involves certain things.

Yeah Chip we have to evaluate risk BUT I think SL offers a relatively risk-free environment for people who wish to explore and experiment in many different ways. I think that it is easy to diss. people who tend to shy away from disclosure or who talk about the problems associated with real life. But not all of us have anonymous jobs, as Brenda pointed out. And interaction with the public can lead to potentially dangerous situations. I am very much in public most of my day and evenings and since I have been 16 I have discovered that privacy and solitude is a wonderful thing. SL offers privacy to some extent (or as much as we can expect). I can only imagine that anyone offering their real life information on SL have very little to protect or hide from the prying eyes of others.

The bottom line is, You want to know the Real Identity of someone here? There are ways to obtain it already if it is that important.

Of course I do. As I said I'm not advocating eliminating anonymity. If I were advocating anything it would be eliminating anonymous accounts so that people who do victimize others would be far more likely to face real consequences for their actions. It seems to me that would make people safer, not more at risk.

If this had been an anonymous poll, I would've voted. I think we should reveal our IP addresses at least.

yeah lol

just IM them your phone number.

I get the "virtual crime" angle for wanting some accountability.

but the rest is blatant nonsense.

I think that is a bit of a smug attitude; you must live in a gated community or in Brigadoon - Crime has impacted me in my real life and I am sure it has impacted many others. It must be nice to be so assured of your security in the real world. I pay for my security in reality.

i dont drive recklessly or drunk and i wear my seatbelt. im not gonna tell you how to drive but i dont appreciate being told im doing it the wrong way since its kept me and those i love safe, alive and out of harm's reach. if you wanna plaster your rl info all over sl or the web go for it. but there is a reason people are encouraged to use internet safety. Not everyone who logs into sl is the position to defend themselves. and i dont think the benefits of disclosure outweigh the risk if even one person comes to harm because of advice like yours. each person must decide for themselves what level of trust they give another person. its not one size fits all. and what youre suggesting is at the very least dangerous/problematic.

Chip isn't suggesting disclosure.

Hes just saying disclosure isn't nearly as risky as many worry about.


He wants accountability though.


Thats my take on what he is saying.

Could you explain how "exposing ourselves to that one in a million"/thousand/whatever risk "dramatically reduces other risks from things we're all victimized by with depressing regularity".

What are the "other risks" that would be dramatically reduced?
How exactly would they be reduced?


Going back to the initial post, the question was "Is Anonymity Really Necessary?"
A better question would have been "Is total openness really necessary?"

That post referred to an "apparent desperation for anonymity".
I think it's missing the point. For my own part, I'm not desperate for anonymity. I simply see no need to have my RL publicly linked to my SL. That's a different approach to the question.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm suggesting, Swan. I completely agree that when it comes to information shared between avatars the level of disclosure should be completely up to the individual. I'd just like to see SL be a place where it's a lot more difficult to do rotten things without fear of consequence. That's all. In no way am I saying you should have to have your home address in your profile.

what do you think would be a step towards this?

The ID verification?





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I still think the OP was suggesting us trotting around SL with our full Real Names easily accessible.

Can I just butt in here and ask one simple question - WHY do people WANT to share their private information anyway?