cyber rape

Turkle describes a cyber rape that occurred in a MUD. One player took control of another player in the MUD and forced the victim's character to carry out sexual acts on his character. The victim had no control over what her player was doing as the other player had taken complete control. One aftermath of this `rape' was that the members of the online community where it occurred had a lengthy discussion to debate whether this truly was a rape of the type we normally associate with physical rape. The participants in this discussion spoke of the online self as being part of the whole self. Rape is not only a crime against the body they concluded, it is a crime against the mind and the self.