Our last article on digital social relations, Julian Dibbell’s “A Rape in Cyberspace”, takes us back from the present moment of Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere to an earlier, different kind of digital community, the text-based multi-user environment LambdaMOO. LambdaMoo is an online environment that allows users to take on imagined identities and roleplay interactions with one another and with the space of the environment itself — you can learn more about it and enter it here (although it’s very much from an earlier moment, it’s still active many years later). In his article, Dibbell narrates a series of events that transpired during his time in LambdaMOO during the early 1990s, in which a character by the name of Mr. Bungle seized control of several other users’ characters through a program known as a “voodoo doll,” forcing them to perform graphic, horrific sexual actions on themselves in the public space of the MOO.
Dibbell relates this narrative, as well as the narrative of the LambdaMOO community’s reaction to Bungle’s actions, because he wants us to think about the capacity for an online environment like this to function as a reality, with its own laws, ethics, relationships, etc. So for this blog post, I’d like you to take on the central underlying issue of Dibbell’s article: is a rape in cyberspace a rape? Why or why not? What characteristics of this online world and the relationships and identities it allows you to take on make Bungle’s actions rape or not? In other words, what role does the way this technology works play in what we might think about the “realness” of this rape? What’s Dibbell’s answer to this question, and why does he see it the way he does? How do he and the community of LambdaMOO react to Bungle’s actions, and what does that tell us about digital identity and community more broadly? In your response, you should quote, cite, and analyze at least one substantial passage from Dibbell’s article – not just a single small term or concept, but a fuller claim of the kind that you might quote in a paper.
Reminder: your response should go in the comments section for this post. It is due by midnight on Sunday, March 11th, the night before our Monday class, and should be at least 150 words. If you have any questions, let me know via email. Have a great break!
Debates in Digital Culture Section 18 
I do not think that a rape in cyberspace should be considered a rape because the actions that occurred were provoked through an online social media and no one was physically harmed or abused by someone else. Mr. Bungle is a horrible person for what he did and should be held accountable for his actions because it is a form of abusive. But these characters on the site could have easily avoided the site and not done anything to them that was stated by the “voodoo doll” program. It is absolutely absurd that these people listened to him in the first place. In the article emmeline, one of the sites users, that was abused by Mr. Bungle states, “ I am requesting that Mr. Bungle be toaded for raping Moondreamer and I. I have never done this before, and have though about it for days.” I am glad that she wanted to take action but all she wanted to be done at first was just get him kicked off of the site instead of more serious repercussions for his actions. However, other users jumped on the same bandwagon and agreed with emmeline that Mr.Bungle should be removed from the site. Julian Dibbell believes that this should be considered rape because these women were abused through the site and humiliated in front of all the other Moo users.
Dibell, Julian. “A Rape in Cyber Space.” 1998: Print.
As a spectator looking from an outside perspective, rape in Cyberspace does not constitute as real rape. While the after effects of may have been the same I don’t think “rape” is the right term. In the real world rape is much more than words on a screen it is tangible and suffocating in a sense where you can not get away. However, taking the perspective of someone who spends a majority of time in the virtual world I could see how one could easily compare it to rape. People who spend time on LambdaMOO or any other virtual reality site create this avatar, an extension of themselves or who they would like to be. From the way Julian Dibell describes it in his article A Rape In Cyberspace it seems that it is very easy to get caught up in this virtual reality, ”the only kind of sense that can be made of MUDly phenomena. For while the facts attached to any event born of a MUD’s strange, ethereal universe may march in straight, tandem lines separated neatly into the virtual and the real, its meaning lies always in that gap. You learn this axiom early in your life as a player, and it’s of no small relevance to the Bungle case that you often learn it between the sheets, so to speak. Netsex, tinysex, virtual sex — however you name it, in real-life reality it’s nothing more than a 900-line encounter stripped of even the vestigial physicality of the voice. And yet, as many a wide-eyed newbie can tell you, it’s possibly the headiest experience the very heady world of MUDs has to offer. Amid flurries of even the most cursorily described caresses, sighs, or penetrations, the glands do engage, and often as throbbingly as they would in a real-life” (Dibell). If this is the mind set of the MOO community it would make sense that after being violated users would call it rape. I think this is why users rallied to have Bungle toaded from the website not only because it is unacceptable behavior but because everyone knows how they would feel if this incident happened to them. It is very easy to look at this case from an outside perspective and say why didn’t users just log off or move to a different room or hide the posts? Even though users had all of these options, from the way Dibble describes it; the damage was usually done in one or two sentences with no warning, similar to a real life rape. While we have progressed in the digital world since this article has been written some things still resonate true today. For example, how to do you prevent someone from coming back to a website after they have been kicked off and creating another persona? We are still facing this issue today especially with sites like tumblr cracking down on what gets published on their site. Overall, the web is still very new and there are many ethical choices we as a digital society have to make such as should the government be involved, who gets to decide what gets put on the web ,should they be allowed to make these decision for us, should we follow the influence of LambdaMOO and let the community decide what is right and wrong ?
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
In reference to the “Mr._Bungle” incident on LambdaMOO in the 1990s, I would not say that his actions constitute as rape. In Julian Dibbell’s book he claims that because of the public humiliation that these women received in the public setting of LambdaMOO, that the actions of Mr._Bungle are considered rape. Dibbell even goes on to say: “To participate, therefore, in this disembodied enactment of life’s most body-centered activity is to risk the realization that when it comes to sex, perhaps the body in question is not the physical one at all, but its psychic double, the bodylike self-representation we carry around in our heads — and that whether we present that body to another as a meat puppet or a word puppet is not nearly as significant a distinction as one might have thought” (Dibbell). That the act that was represented although a part of virtual reality, still left the emotional scar upon the users it effected. But to say that the representation or avatar is accurate or even of based on a real life individual, would not be how some define such cyber realities. In many environments the users behind the computers find that they are more playing God than just playing in a life-like scenario. While the users response of having Bungle removed from the site can be described as justified, the idea that this cyber assault can be construed as true rape is absurd. Just as with cyber bullying, there must be a real life component for these actions to have true potency.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
In the article, “A Rape in Cyberspace,” Julian Dibbell writes about and explains his opinions on the events that had transpired on LambdaMOO. Dibbell feels as though cyberspace rape is something that should be taken seriously and would be considered a rape. He states that he found himself reasoning that what had occurred, “must be classed as a crime against the mind—more intimately and deeply hurtful, to be sure, than cross burnings, wolf whistles, and virtual rape, but undeniably located on the same conceptual continuum.” (Dibbell). I on the other hand, have come to the conclusion that rape that occurs in cyberspace is not considered rape, but rather a term that is an intermediate between rape and molestation. I do agree with Dibbell on the fact that a rape, whether real or virtual should be taken seriously, but am not completely on the board with Dibbell’s argument. Although I do not agree in whole with Dibbell’s argument, I do acknowledge what players on such communities, like LambdaMOO, were arguing during their gathering. In a community such as LambdaMOO, the player creates an identity, not solely an empty character, but rather a fragment on their mind. Just as the player Quastro asked, “Where does the body and the mind begin?” (Dibbell). As an outsider reader, I believe that the body and the mind are not completely one in the same, which is why I think that the term “rape” would not be appropriate in this particular case. However, in the end I am glad that Mr. Bungle was toaded. It shows that as a society, we are able to enact changes if enough effort is put into a certain cause.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Rape is the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. In comparison to the Mr_Bungle situation that Julian Dibbell brings up in his article A Rape in Cyberspace, this cyber action would not constitute to rape but more so of mental abuse and cyber bullying. Dibbell believes this action that was enacted over a social network called LambdaMOO is considered rape because it took advantage of females and caused them public humiliation. Although I understand Dibbell’s argument, rape is not the term I would use for this situation. Dibbell states “as far as the database program is concerned, all of these entities — rooms, things, characters — are just different subprograms that
the program allows to interact according to rules very roughly mimicking the laws of the physical world” (Dibbell). This quote is significant in regards to my argument because Dibbell mentions the word “mimick” which is all this social network is made to do. The females who Mr_Bungle assaulted through the internet were not physically harmed but simply put to shame through harsh words and enactments. In his argument Dibbell quotes a young woman who Mr_Bungle humiliated stating: ““Mostly voodoo dolls are amusing,” wrote exu on the evening after Bungle’s rampage, posting a public statement to the widely read in-MOO mailing list called *social-issues, a forum for debate on matters of import to the entire populace. “And mostly I tend to think that restrictive measures around here cause more trouble than they prevent. But I also think that Mr. Bungle was being a
vicious, vile fuckhead, and I…want his sorry ass scattered from #17 to the Cinder Pile. 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” (Dibbell). As this woman speaks of jails and trials she is merely speaking of this things through the internet not real life. although Mr_Bungle was removed from the site there was no real physical damage done to any of these women. Although they may have felt mentally abused, I could only hope they would have rathered this ignorance to occur through the web and not in real life.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Julian Dibbell, the author of My Tiny Life, believes that the abuse that occurred on LamdaMOO should be considered rape because of the humiliation the victims felt afterward. Obviously what Mr._Bungle did on LamdaMOO was wrong, and it is understandable that the women involved felt violated. The way the community rallied in support of these women by agreeing to punish Mr._Bungle by “toading” him shows that these people obviously spent a lot of time on the site in their alternate character and developed a sense of unity. This reaction shows how digital communities can function similarly to real life communities in an emotional sense. That being said, I believe that calling this virtual assault “rape” is inappropriate. Julian Dibbell even admits that what occurred could not be considered rape in the real world. He explains that “The actors in the drama were university students for the most part, and they sat rather undramatically before computer screens the entire time, their only actions a spidery flitting of fingers across standard QWERTY keyboards. No bodies touched. Whatever physical interaction occurred consisted of a mingling of electronic signals sent from sites spread out between New York City and Melbourne, Australia.” The victims of this “cyber rape” were not physically assaulted at all. Although Mr._Bungle’s victims had no say in the matter and felt taken advantage of, in reality their characters were assaulted through a descriptive and sick arrangement of words. Yes, they were the victims of a form of abuse, but I think the more appropriate term would be that they were victims of cyber bulling. They were not physically harmed so I find it difficult to believe that the psychological trauma of being “cyber raped” is on the same level of that of real life rape victims.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
In an article written by Julian Dibbell, who explains a series of events where a person online with the username Mr_Bungle publicly humiliated women on a website. Dibbell argued, “Many were the casual references to Bungle’s deed as simply “rape,” but these in no way implied that the players had lost sight of all distinctions between the virtual and physical versions, or that they believed Bungle should be dealt with in the same way a real-life criminal would” (pg 6). I personally do not believe that what Mr Bungle did should be considered rape. Rape is a physical act and is also a very delicate subject. With the casual calling of Mr. Bungle’s act as rape, it can be clearly seen that the word rape being thrown around out of context is becoming more popular. The only was Mr_Bungle’s act can be considered “rape” is that he made those women do actions online involuntarily. The difference is that many real life rapes happen from someone the victim knows. In this situation it is completely anonymous. This situation, being online, makes it not technically rape. It did give the women emotional trauma and Mr_Bungle should be kicked off that website, but seeing that is happening online it makes it seem less real.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
The event that Julian Dibell described in his article “A Rape in Cyrberspace” is not something that I would consider rape. In real life, rape is something that goes far beyond what happened in LambdaMOO. It would be foolish to consider Mr. Bungles actions rape. Of course Mr. Bungle acted very inappropriately and what he did should never be allowed. The fact that it shouldn’t be allowed in a virtual world in no way means that it was rape. Julian Dibell and the rest of the people who were part of this community knew this as well. Dibell says, “Many were the casual references to Bungle’s deed as simply “rape,” but these in no way implied that the players had lost sight of all distinctions between the virtual and physical versions, or that they believed Bungle should be dealt with in the same way a real-life criminal would.” (6) Everyone involved knew that what happened in their virtual world in no way resembled what rape in real life is like. However, Dibell used the word rape to make his point about what happened clear. He wants people to understand that Mr. Bungles actions can have a real life impact on the people he “attacked.” At one point, he described how one of the people who was said to be “raped” actually ended up crying from what was done. This illustrates that the words that Mr. Bungle wrote that night were certainly some type of verbal abuse that led to a strong emotional response. With that being said, the events that Dibell reflected on in this article don’t come close to the brutality of rape in real life.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
In Julian Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace” deals with a virtual character being raped causing emotional distress and seeking a punishment for that crime.
No I don’t believe rape in cyberspace is the same a rape or should be treated the same. No is physically harmed during this action. If you are penalized for rape in cyberspace then what about all the video games where people are killing each other? Should that be considered a homicide?
Dibbell states “Many were the casual references to Bungle’s deed as simply “rape,” but these in no way implied that the players had lost sight of all distinctions between the virtual and physical versions, or that they believed Bungle should be dealt with in the same way a real-life criminal would” (6). This shows that players realized that someone was raped and probably had an emotional connection towards it but still realized that it did not happen in the real world. Yes rape in cyberspace is not right but I cannot compare to a real life rape.
The only punishment that I think is acceptable for online “raping” is to simply ban it and remove it from the site. This just shows how someone can get so caught up in the virtual world that they seem and compare them to real life situations.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Julian Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace” discusses a series of events that occurred during his time in a digital community called LambdaMOO. A character by the name of Mr. Bungle took control of several other users’ characters and forced them to perform sexual actions on themselves through a program called “voodoo doll.” Rape is a type of sexual act that involves forcing another person to have sexual intercourse with you by the use of physical violence. The online world consists of users who sit behind the screen of their computer or cell phone and engage in social interactions with other users from around the world. No physical interactions occur when users are digitally interacting. Therefore, I do not believe that a rape in cyberspace is a rape because rather than being physically forced to commit a sexual act, the victim is influenced by digital technology instead. I understand that the actions committed by Mr. Bungle are wrong but I do not believe that they mirror those of a real life rape. At anytime the users being digitally attacked by Mr. Bungle could have simply exited out of LambdaMOO. However, a victim that is being raped outside of the digital world doesn’t have the ability to escape with the click of a button. Dibbell makes it clear in the article that he feels as if a rape that occurs in cyberspace should not be considered a rape. He states that “The actors in the drama were university students for the most part, and they sat rather undramatically before computer screens the entire time, their only actions a spidery flitting of fingers across standard QWERTY keyboards. No bodies touched. Whatever physical interaction occurred consisted of a mingling of electronic signals sent from sites spread out between New York City and Melbourne, Australia” (2). In other words, the users that were pretending to be Mr. Bungle were behind the screen of a computer the entire time. The victims were neither physically harmed nor forced by Mr. Bungle to commit a sexual act. Rather, digital codes were sent from computer to computer that influenced the characters. Therefore, Dibbell feels as if the actions of Mr. Bungle were not quite on the same level as a real life rapist. Although Dibbell doesn’t consider this a rape, the purpose of his article was to make us think about the capacity for an online community like this to function in reality.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Rape, according to dictionary.com is listed as, “the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.” In reference to the event that occurred in Julian Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace,” I do not believe that it constitutes as rape. Because the actions discussed, involving Mr. Bungle, took place behind computer screens, rape is not the correct word to use in this situation. In reference to the scandal, Dibbell even goes on to say, “No bodies touched. Whatever physical interaction occurred consisted of a mingling of electronic signals sent from sites spread out between New York City and Melbourne, Australia.” I found this to be more an act of manipulation and brain washing, as opposed to rape. This in no way defends the horrible actions, and I can completely see why the author felt so violated that the word “rape” seemed suitable to use, but in this day and age I do not believe it is appropriate to use the word out of its true context. I can see why Dibbell was so upset, many people were emotionally harmed, and I understand the seriousness of the crime, but there is a different way to describe the felony. The online users could have reacted to the manipulation in a different way by simply clicking out of LambdaMOO anytime they wanted, never to be bothered by Mr. Bungle again. This may be harsh, but as much as the people were hurt psychologically, I believe it was their own fault and that people as a whole need to learn when to turn away and say no.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
“Rape.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. .
In her article ” A Rape in Cyberspace” Julian Dibell narrates an event associated with rape that happened on a social network. She describes how the subscribers attribute themselves roles that they want to play and then interact with each other as those characters. She relates how one of the characters through a designed program forced two other characters to engage in perverse sexual activity as a result of which they were psychologically affected. The article questions weather a rape on cyberspace is a rape in real life and what are the implications of such an event on real life. The author says :” To participate therefore in this disembodied enactment of life’s most body-centered activity is to risk the realization that when it comes to sex, perhaps the body in question is not the physical one at all, but is psychic double, the body like self representation we carry around in our heads- and that weather we present that body as a meat puppet or as a word puppet is not nearly as significant as one might have thought”(3).So,Julian Dibell in a way thinks there is a very small distance from being virtually raped and being raped in real life when it comes to the emotional damage created as a result of this unfortunate event. In a way this makes complete sense taking in consideration the great emotional involvement most of the characters have in the virtual life. She describes how the characters relate to each others and how they even have “goodbyes” and “kisses”. When a person loses the thread between real life and virtual life such an event can appear as traumatic as it would be in real life. I believe that when it comes to a rape the damage created by it in real life is not comparable to the emotional discomfort one may experience in cyberspace as a result of exposure to the virtual experience. The toll payed by rape victims is way higher and involves both emotional and physical trauma.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Although Mr. Bungle’s actions were truly disturbing and shameful for the victims at hand I cannot label them as rape. The fact that his online character was completely deleted, I just like the author of “A Rape in Cyberspace” Julian Dibbell, think it was rightfully done but because of our generation’s use of a digital world as mostly entertainment and not a life altering object I can’t comprehend the actions as actual real life rape. The hard-core Mooers that gathered in emmeline’s room to make a decision on Mr. Bungle’s punishment were very disordered and confused as to what retribution was judicious for his actions. Julian Dibbell writes “On these and other matters the anarchists, the libertarians, the legalists, the wizardists — and the wizards – – all had their thoughtful say. But as the evening wore on and the talk grew more heated and more heady, it seemed increasingly clear that the vigorous intelligence being brought to bear on this swarm of issues wasn’t going to result in anything remotely like resolution. The perspectives were just too varied, the meme-scape just too slippery.” Although each group had a different opinion on the matter the LambdaMOO users felt as one community and were still unable to come to terms. This inability to come up with a direct decision shows that they were torn just like I was reading this essay, just like the actual narrator of the story was and even like the author himself writing it as to whether Bungle should continue to exist in the LambdaMOO world, whether his “toading” would reflect badly on their community and whether or not the cyber rape that Bungle carried out right in the living room should be handles as a real-life legal offense? On a broader scale the LambdaMOO community is a reflection of our society because we also take our social media “characters” very seriously. Just like the rape victims were very hurt on the program, most people in our world take their digital identities very seriously too. Because of this grand perspective of digital media it is so hard for both the LambdaMOO community and often times our community to make a resolution of “online” problems. Similarly to this VR that stood completely unchanged and running after the Bungle incident, our social media sites continue to run at great speeds one striking event after another.
The term “rape” in this article is more or less so referring to a mental rape. Obviously no physical rape was conducted, but I think the point Dibbell is trying to make is that there are people that hide behind their computer screens and do sick things like this. The victims of these situations most of the time cannot avoid actions like Mr. Bungle commit. This is because there is a certain barrier between the real world and the technological world. Dibbell quotes a victim of Mr. Bungle, “A sense was brewing that something needed to be done — done soon and in something like an organized fashion — about Mr. Bungle, in particular, and about MUD rape, in general. Regarding the general problem, emmeline, who identified herself as a survivor of both virtual rape (“many times over”) and real- life sexual assault, floated a cautious proposal for a MOO-wide powwow on the subject of virtual sex offenses and what mechanisms if any might be put in place to deal with their future occurrence. As for the specific problem, the answer no doubt seemed obvious to many. But it wasn’t until the evening of the second day after the incident that exu, finally and rather solemnly, gave it voice:
‘I am requesting that Mr. Bungle be toaded for raping Moondreamer and I. I have never done this before, and have thought about it for days. He hurt us both.’ ” It is interesting to note that emmeline says virtual and real-life rape. Real-life rape meaning she was emotionally affected like a rape victim and that her character on the internet was raped. I think it is very real. It is a serious crime whether it is committed in real-life or through cyber world. Through the cyber world it violates our mental being and can scar a person. Mr. Bungle’s intentions, whatever they were, were crude and cruel. I think this situation is an example of how people don’t realize how their actions on the internet can affect a person. It goes deeper than the keyboard. After reading this, I think Dibbell is trying to tell his readers the same thing-people don’t realize that when they do things such as cyber rape they don’t know how much they affect the corresponding person.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
The term “rape” in this sense is more or less so a mental rape. Although physical rape cannot be conducted through cyber space, there is definitely a sense of mental rape. For Dibbell, I think she almost agrees that the character of Mr. Bungle is a character that is looking to have crude fun. His crude fun goes too far, however. Dibbell quotes a victim of Mr. Bungle’s actions, “A sense was brewing that something needed to be done — done soon and in something like an organized fashion — about Mr. Bungle, in particular, and about MUD rape, in general. Regarding the general problem, emmeline, who identified herself as a survivor of both virtual rape (“many times over”) and real- life sexual assault, floated a cautious proposal for a MOO-wide powwow on the subject of virtual sex offenses and what mechanisms if any might be put in place to deal with their future occurrence. As for the specific problem, the answer no doubt seemed obvious to many. But it wasn’t until the evening of the second day after the incident that exu, finally and rather solemnly, gave it voice:
‘I am requesting that Mr. Bungle be toaded for raping Moondreamer and I. I have never done this before, and have thought about it for days. He hurt us both.’ ” Emmeline says herself that she has been raped virtually and in real-life. Virtually I think she was implying that her character was assaulted and in real-life she was mentally scared from the situation. A situation such as that is inevitable to walk away from without mental scars. I think cyber rape is very real. It goes deeper than just the keyboard, and the victims that Dibbell quotes prove that. I think Dibbell is revealing that cyber rape is very real and tries to emphasize that by narrating her own experience and other people’s experiences with cyber rape.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.
Although the it is not suprising that the community members of LambdaMOO are affected by Mr. Bungle’s hostile actions I’m not sure that a “rape in cyberspace” would actually be considered rape. According to Dictionary.com, rape is the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. This leaving them with not only physical harm and loss of control but also mental. On the internet, it is almost like online bullying alluding to the fact and causes emotional distress, but not actually physically harming the person. Although neither cyber rape or online bullying is acceptable, the users who feel violated can sign off and discontinue their usage at any time. They can also report the harassers and even block them from their LambdaMOO worlds never having to interact with them again. But I believe that those who truly feel violated such as the user who posted: “I am requesting that Mr. Bungle be toaded for raping Moondreamer and I. I have never done this before, and have thought about it for days. He hurt us both” has every right to bring the issue to attention. Rape in reality is much more harming both physically and mentally than an online forum no matter how intriguing the game is. Feelings may be hurt but users have the power to escape a situation at any time and prevent it from going any further. Actions such as this come as a risk when anyone any time can join in and connect.
Dibbell, Julian. “Chapter One.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Holt, 1998. 1-10. Print.