If you've never immersed yourself in online life, you might not realize the emotional availability it takes to be a regular member of an internet community. (And if you are inclined to pooh-pooh this, first read author Julian Dibble's chapter about a rape that occurred in a text-only MOO in the early '90s.)Ī virtual rape is by definition sudden, explicit and often devastating. Virtual rape is not just a prank, one the target needs to get over or expect as part of a role-playing world. That's not to say I dismiss the trauma a person suffers after being raped online. No matter how disturbed you are by a brutal sexual attack online, you cannot equate it to shivering in a hospital with an assailant's sweat or other excretions still damp on your body. But I have a hard time calling it 'rape,' or believing it's a matter for the police.
