What have you done?!

Virtual rape? Harassment? Sexual Harassment? What exactly does "I'm licking your thighs" count as? This is a question which boggles my mind.

Dictionary.com defines the word "harass" as, "to disturb persistently; torment, as with troubles or cares; bother continually; pester; persecute." I think that what DemonBoy did could definitely qualify as harassment, then.

Dictionary.com defines "sexual harassment" as, "The making of unwanted and offensive sexual advances or of sexually offensive remarks or acts, especially by one in a superior or supervisory position or when acquiescence to such behavior is a condition of continued employment, promotion, or satisfactory evaluation." Most definitions of sexual harassment reference this employer-employee relationship, although I'd say that what DemonBoy did applies to this definition too.

Dictionary.com defines "rape" as, "the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse." OK, I'd say that DemonBoy didn't go this far, for there wasn't any actual touching, except in the case of his keyboard and possibly himself.

Dictionary.com does not list a definition for "virtual rape," however in my mind, virtual rape is the middle ground between actual, physical rape, and sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can be committed over the phone, in person, or online. Rape can only be committed in person. The middle ground would most likely be a physical action committed online. This is a virtual rape. So using this logic, allow me to construct a definition of "virtual rape": the compelling of a woman to have sexual intercourse through unwanted and offensive sexual advances, in an online and seemingly physical, but not actually physical, environment." Under this definition, the only act DemonBoy committed was sexual harassment. I don't see virtual rape as being anything achievable by today's technological capabilities. Virtual rape would imply that two people are able to meet face to face in a virtual room, and experience everything the five senses have to offer. It would be sort of Matrix style where the real, physical person is somewhere else, resting yet hooked into a machine of sorts, while they act outside of their body in a different place. Of course, virtual rape would be like a dream, where you would experience horrible things, such as pain and fear, however once you woke up from it, you would be entirely fine, less any psychological damage that the experience has caused you.

Now, how is a virtual world like this to be regulated? With virtual police men? Real police who hook up to a machine and then enforce laws in the second life world? Or would the virtual rape take place in a private meeting place, such as a bright, white room, where nobody else was monitoring? If that's the case, then women and men will experience rape, as well as all kinds of other heinous acts, all the time! DemonBoy- time to chillax on the "sexual harassment," and start thinking about what type of person it takes to sexually harass another.