Counterstrike players guilty of virtual homicide?

There's a lot about the Second Life "age-play"/child pornography thing (BBC) that doesn't make any sense to me. Of course, whenever allegations of paedophilia are made both public and media reactions tend to take on the mindlessness of a witch-hunt and we should not raise our expectations too high. But this has been reported more than usually incoherently. 

First, many commentators seem to have unhelpfully conflated two phenomena (allthingsD).

The first phenomenon, reported the German TV station that broke the alleged news, is adults within SL who make use of the mutability of physical identity there to have virtual sex with other adults who have assumed child personae or avatars. ARD, the German TV station that apparently broke this news (ZDnet), managed to capture footage of a 54-year-old man whose avatar resembled an adult having virtual sex with a 27-year-old woman whose avatar resembled a child. So far so distasteful...but, I think it crucial to note, no actual children involved.

The second phenomenon reported is that some SL inhabitants are promoting "real" child pornography within the virtual world (Law.com). It goes without saying that since the creation of real child pornography requires the abuse of real children its creators and possessors should be pursued with all the resources the law possesses and suffer the severest legal consequences.

So, having unbundled the two phenomena, back to the first. Now, I don't know anything about German law (perhaps if you do you can tell me the various ways in which I'm doubtless wrong). But if two SL avatars commit a virtual sex act within SL, have they actually created, let alone come to possess, even virtual pornography? If German journalists film me having sex and give the tape to the police I can't see the police being very interested in prosecuting me, not even if my adult partner was dressed as a child. I suppose they might show some interest in pursuing the people who did the filming though. I'm honestly curious as to how two people having sex are guilty of creating pornography while the TV company filming them apparently is not.

Also, as many people have pointed out, it just isn't news. The SL Herald revealingly reported the mainstream media coverage as "German media notices SL unverified accounts and ageplay" (my italics). Here's the SL Herald talking about age play in February 2007. Here's CNet in April 2006.

So what's really going on here? Something illegal and very nasty has been found out - people using SL to trade real child pornography. Something that everyone already knew about has been bundled up with this unpleasant news - people in SL having sex with adults whose avatars resemble children. And all this happens to have broken in a territory - Germany - that, unlike the US where SL's owners are based, has a law against virtual child pornography, suddenly making the latter point an arguably criminal one rather than a matter of corporate policy and personal or community taste.

I am surprised that so many commentators have gone largely unchallenged making the claim that virtual age-play between adults in what amounts to children's clothes is pretty much synonymous with real world pornography. I am surprised that paedophiles think SL a sensible forum in which to trade illegal images. I am surprised at the sloppiness of reporting that bundles two items - one news, one not - as a single, recent revelation.

I am, alas, unsurprised that once again the mere mention of paedophilia - much of it, in this case, of an almost entirely fictitious sort between consenting adults - has reduced much informed commentary to an outpouring of barely considered rage. And I am unsurprised that I have yet to come across the argument that, since some people are regrettably afflicted by a sexual  dysfunction that inclines them towards children, it is possible that allowing them a virtual space in which to fulfil their fantasies might reduce the chances of them becoming a danger to real children in the real world. I am entirely sympathetic to the position espoused by Inigo Chamberlain that age play "just creeps me out". But I think I could live with being a bit creeped out by the knowledge that somewhere in virtuality there were adults pretending to have sex with children if it were at all likely that this reduced the likelihood of them attempting to do so corporeally.

Finally, I would like to tip my hat to the Slashdot commenter whose excellent comment gave me the title for this post:

"Whenever I see this sort of thing...I can't help thinking that, by their lights, they should also be investigating tens of thousands of Counterstrike players for 'Virtual Homicide'."

Comments

[weaverluke]

Another great post, Seamus.

My thoughts: Sexuality can be one of the most vunerable and emotive aspects of human identity, so it's perhaps no surprise that people often switch off their higher brains when thinking and talking about its abuses. By contrast, violence numbs and brutalises us, and it seems we find it far easier to distance ourselves emotionally from its virtual depiction.

[Emmanuel]

Its a sick game

[Emmanuel]

lol