The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #138360   Message #3170903
Posted By: GUEST,lively
15-Jun-11 - 08:12 AM
Thread Name: BS: Sexting and digital genitals
Subject: RE: BS: Sexting and digital genitals
"which in turn would mean than virtual murder, is the same as real murder, or virtual vehicular homicide in video games can be punishable by law."

Err, well I suppose if you were successful in actually killing someone over the internet, it would still be murder. Exposing oneself to a stranger is exposing oneself to a stranger, it's a form of sexual harassment, be it in image form or otherwise. The internet, despite it's newness, doesn't make things 'unreal'. It's just a medium like any other. Poison pen letters are taken seriously despite the person making threats via the medium of paper correspondence, buying child porn on DVD is an offense, despite the fact the viewer isn't physically abusing the children, telephone harassement is harassement despite the fact that the person harassing you is doing so at a safe distance rather than speaking to you face to face.

So as far as exposing oneself is a concerned, personally, I'd be more freaked by a man singling me out over the internet in order to expose himself, than a random opportunist in a raincoat who wasn't targeting me personally.