Task 3: Think back to our discussions on Second Life. What are the social concerns of the development of the kind of technology discussed in this article? How is it changing the way we interact? What are the issues on control and censorship? Who is left behind? Post an entry of 300w in response to these questions. Do some of your own research and find actual examples to back up your points.
Instant messengers, such as MSN Messenger, allow people to communicate online, cutting the costs on phone bills. Although some may argue that this has a negative effect on telephone businesses, it is undeniable that the internet, especially social networking sites, has created more of a global village allowing people to interact across the globe.
Second Life is an internet-based virtual world, with no rules, which has proved controversial. And with it costing somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars to create a virtual world, the benefits have to be substantial. Second Life certainly has proved worth while. However, an investigation in this virtual world by Sky News has proved there may be a dark side to Second Life. Could this lead to the fall in what seems to be the latest craze?
This video on Youtube by Jason Farrell of Sky News uncovers the "dark side" of Second Life.It reveales a huge sex industry, and raises questions over the age of people accessing the material available. A virtual investigator found that hidden behind shopping mall on one virtual island is a place called Wonderland. At first, it looks like a playground, with a number of young children. However, these children aren't just playing around, they are performing sexual acts to too. These are children are off all ages, even todlers. You can agree a price and carry out a range of sexual acts with them.
An issue raised with the virtual world is that virtual crime has real victims. A major concern is that people will bring their fantasys from the fantasy world to the real world and act it out. An example of this is a Archibald Wood, a pedophile who moved from fantasizing in internet chatrooms, to real child abuse. His computer hardrive logged his activities, and helped to convict him. However, in Second Life, actions are not recorded. Following the sky news investigation, Second Life said that virtual detectives will be sent in to check out Wonderland. This is censorship and control. It is hard to monitor who does/says what, as we never know who is behind the avatar (user). There are not enough people willing to take jobs to control a virtual life and because of that there has been a moral panic based upon this issue. However, these detectives hope to uncover areas such as Wonderland, and stop them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment