When addressed, Second Life is one of the most popular online games, with endless opportunities available at just a click of a button. Often considered as a virtual reality, one is free to explore, meet new people, learn new things and even fall in love. Residents take virtual personality seriously and often try to customize their avatar to feel a sense of presence. The customization usually represents them or what they ought be in reality. But, there are some exceptions...
In second life, virtual harassment is not taken lightly, as batteries of rules and regulations are provided each time a person teleports' to a new island. However, there are a few out there who seek pleasure in causing distress to other avatars. By the end of 2006, an estimate of 6.5% residents filed one or more harassment reports on Second Life, and about close to 2,000 reports per day were received by Linden Lab [1]. Virtual Harassment is a sensitive subject, and women are always the targets. Female avatars usually gain friends and get chatted up more quicker than male avatars. Perhaps this is because female avatars are more attractive, and a general assumption is made that the avatar might look like the real person.
Residents can encounter harassments through these two scenarios: the resident can be lured or can lure others by the means of role-play or purchase and the resident can be a griefer or suffer from grief because of another avatar posing as a griefer [2]. Being subjected to virtual harassment, the victim does have a chance to teleport out of the situation. However, the actions imposed can increase intimidation and possible fears of further going to other islands. The virtual world is similar or better than the real world, because individuals are free to explore at their leisure, create avatars that would not be judged and feel a sense of superiority from being anonymous. Hence, debilitating one of such experiences would be disheartening!
Trolling, stalking, moving objects around, bumping into other avatars
and trash talks on Second Life are some of the several ways virtual harassment
can occur and impact not only the avatar but the person behind the screen. The importance of the game is such, that people have fallen in love and gotten divorced/broke up over a spouse
caught cheating with another avatar. Imagine the impact on the individual, if another merely stalked them out of personal pleasure.
An incident occurred several years ago to Cybergrrl Oh (alias used to represent her avatar) where she was demanded Linden dollars (currency used in Second Life) and caged until she paid up [3]! Naturally, anyone in such a situation would be distressed, not to mention if you are a new player, just trying to explore islands. Obviously, avatars like 'Doctorboom Fall' (alias used to represent his avatar) are clearly out their to intimidate others, simply out of pleasure and in hope of earning some cash off them.
On a virtual game where residents are supposedly not judged - by the way they are dressed or the choice of their body shape, it is interesting how other residents make direct assumption that the avatar is slutty from the clothes worn. In second life, women are expected to submit to sexual harassment constantly, by people who are knowingly violating the ToS (terms of service). If the avatar wears slutty clothes, she is automatically called a slut; if she is blonde, she is automatically considered as wanting to have fun because she is stereotyped as such. Isn't virtual reality a place where people can hope to be what they desire? Somewhere, they can leave reality behind and enjoy the recreation of themselves and their world as exciting as they have imagined without having to deal with the prejudices of the real world? Then why such assumptions? ...
Fortunately, I have not been harassed in second life or in any multi-player games. However, I have read blogs about (women) being sexually harassed in online games, as well as, heard guys react profanely if they ever heard a female voice on League of Legends or World of Warcraft. I have not spoken on multi-player games or even on second life, perhaps out of fright that I might be looked at differently. It is difficult to mask your identity online, but most women do it out of choice. It is better to mask your identity than to be harassed. Though the victim and assaulter are both anonymous, the harassment can be unsettling, and distressing. Considerable measures such as policing and reporting abusers should be taken to ensure that online games are a safe place for adults and teenagers respectively. More online forums (support/counselling) should be established to help those encountering such problems to cope. Online games is a place to enjoy, not to suffer!
References:
[1] Guest, T. (2007). Second Lives: A journey through virtual worlds. UK: Hutchinson.
[2] Bugeja, M. (2010, February 25). Avatar Rape. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/02/25/bugeja
[3] Cybergrrl Oh (2007, December 17). Second life harassment - caged! Retrieved from http://cybergrrloh.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/second-life-harassment-caged.html
Oh, wow. Even online game has been an avenue for such serious matter. This is really going to be a great problem. Sexual harassment seems to have evolved along with media.
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