Belgian police patrols Second Life to prevent rape

Posted Apr 21st 2007 2:05PM by Aimee Weber
Filed under: News, Mixed Reality

A little while back I wrote an article entitled Just Killin': Avatar Murder, which was about the possible escalation of treating virtual crimes as though they were real crimes. The gist was, if we start treating the simulated acts of pedophilia as a crime despite the fact that no real life pedophilia had occurred, then we will have lost any justification that protects other simulated crimes from regulation or scrutiny. The most obvious virtual pastime at risk is killing including war games, action adventure games, etc. But the next crime I predicted that would follow was simulated rape.

Well here we go: Belgian police patrols Second Life to prevent rape.

Apparently the Brussels Court will be working together with the Federal Computer Crime Unit to "patrol in Second Life" after a virtual rape case that involved a Belgian Second Life user. There are no details at this time about what actually occurred in this case or under what laws these virtual actions would be prosecuted, however the translation of the primary sources allude to a "morals section." Another translated quote mentioned "the public prosecutor was alarmed," which may hint at how seriously this case is being taken.

[Thanks to VictoriaK for spotting this story. Click here to see the Second Citizen discussion]

Brusselse politie gaat patrouilleren op Second Life
Federal Computer Crime Unit patrouilleert in Second Life
FreeTranslation.com

Tags: ageplay, rape, second life crime, SecondLifeCrime

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. "A very big part of the Second Life community consists of deviant personalities who dress up as 'furries' (mostly human-like cats) and interact with each other through all sorts of bizarre virtual sex toys."

Human-like cats? Deviant? Wow, there's someone who doesn't know nor cares to know what she's writing about. Wonderful journalism, that.

Posted at 10:38PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by bravelionheart07

2. I don't get it. Someone's figured out a way to prevent other people from logging out?

Posted at 10:52PM on Apr 21st 2007 by Morgana Fillion

3. oh no... once again....
why don't they research the subject before writing?
like that text that inspired me to go to the psychologyst to do this article: http://metaverse.acidzen.org/2007/many-ways-to-rape
I just don't believe that police got involved into something like that. After FBI there will be more RL cops in SL than anybody else.

Posted at 12:02AM on Apr 22nd 2007 by dandellion Kimban

4. O_o um, I don't see how it's even possible to "rape" someone unless bumping them with your avatar counts?

Don't get too silly with this ....sillyness.

Posted at 8:46AM on Apr 22nd 2007 by Nacon

5. The original stories in the Belgium papers are much shorter, they do say patrol, but they just mean they are going to do fact finding after some reported the virtual rape.

Posted at 4:12PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by MrFrans

6. Thanks MrFrans! That sounds much more reasonable than the translated story.

Posted at 4:13PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by Aimee Weber

7. The reports in the Belgium news papers do mention patrol, but more in the sense of fact finding after some one reported the rape. Which will clear things up quickly one way or another, i would think.

Posted at 4:16PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by Frans Charming

8. Still, wasn't it all worth it to see me in a cute police uniform? ;D

Posted at 4:27PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by Aimee Weber

9. O_o um, I don't see how it's even possible to "rape" someone unless bumping them with your avatar counts?
It counts. From the moment some griefing idiot did just that, I do count. It made me do the article mentioned above. Believe it or not, it is not nice experience, actually, it made me feel much worse than I expected.

Posted at 8:29PM on Apr 24th 2007 by dandellion Kimban

10. Well, no means no at any time. There are no details, but it could have been a noob who didn't know what the pose balls were.

Clearly, the case has been reported, and they are investigating whether a crime has in fact been committed, which is their duty. At least someone is taking possible crime in SL seriously even if Linden doesn't. Clearly too, there is enough info supplied to warrant an investigation.

As for the computer crime units, I would expect them to be patrolling anyway, but they won't be going around with tags on their heads. The first you'll know of it is when they bring a prosecution.

And with frauds, scams, ponzi schemes, illegal banks, threats and the like, I expect they'll have a field day lol.

Posted at 11:41AM on Apr 25th 2007 by Montana Corleone

11. Yeah, human-like cats, deviant? Baby, you're standing on the top of Mount Everest without realising it's an iceberg. WELCOME TO THE EXPERIENCE KNOWN AS FURRY, ENJOY YOUR STAY, AND YOUR NIGHTMARES! :D

Posted at 2:12AM on Apr 28th 2007 by vinz

12. I sense the anger of a thousand furrys, but they are just to bussy making nippleholes in their new fursuits to do anything about it.

Posted at 11:11PM on May 12th 2007 by Even

13. don't want to hurt nobodies feelings, but c'mon !
but this is a bit over the top.
what happens to the log-off ?
tp somewhere else ?
i believe all users of SL have experienced bad stuff happening to a degree or other,
but one of the things that makes me feel so good about SL is that i'm safe !
nothing bad can happen to me if i don't allow it.
on the one encounter that the guy tried to turn himself wise i wiped his ass !
no sir, i'm not taking any abuse from you hell no !

maybe the victim was a pollyana type thinking all the cute AVs are as nice as they look.
reality check: there are real people behind these cute AVs,
and not all of them as nice as they look.
so be nice and polite, but don't be a fool.
at least in this 2º life you can fight back and fair.
or just -simply- flip the finger and turn off.

Posted at 4:10AM on May 8th 2007 by patou dumont

14. "what happens to the log-off ?
tp somewhere else ?"
do you really advising quitin anything you do and running away every time some idiot griefer tries to screw up your day?
And second, in the moment you are tping away, idiot griefer succeded in screwing up your day, you are late.

Posted at 10:15AM on May 8th 2007 by dandellion Kimban

15. Maybe removing unverified accounts will help with this, Aimee?

Posted at 12:19PM on May 8th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi