Monica Whitty

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Morals in Cyberspace?

• Monica Whitty
• Nottingham Trent University

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Outline

• Brief history of the Internet
• Internet infidelity
• Play
• Online games
• Philosophy

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Defining Cyberspace
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Is any behaviour acceptable in cyberspace?
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Utopian playing field

• Turkle (1995) 'Life on the screen'
• Participated in MUDs and MOOs
• Different selves online

On the Internet, nobody knows youre a dog.
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• 40 years of the Internet
• 20 years of the WWW
• Tim Berners-Lee
• Vague but exciting!

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• Internet infidelity

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Online Sexual Activities

• Hot Chatting
• Cybersex
• TinySex
• Teledildonics

xxx
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What is infidelity?

• Maheu and Subotnik (2001)
• Infidelity happens when two people have a
  commitment and that commitment is broken
  regardless of where, how or with whom it happens.
  Infidelity is the breaking of a promise with a
  real person, whether the sexual stimulation is
  derived from the virtual or the real world.

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Parker and Wampler (2003)

• Meeting someone in a hotel room to have sex
• Interacting in adult chat rooms
• Having cybersex
• Having telephone sex
• Becoming a member of an adult web site
• Engaging in cybersex various times

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Mileham (2007)

• Interviewed 76 men and 10 women
• Yahoos Married And Flirting and MSNs Married
  But Flirting chat rooms.
• All online sexual acts are unfaithful

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Separate components of infidelity

• Sexual
• Emotional

Whitty, M. T. (2003). Pushing the wrong buttons
Mens and womens attitudes towards online and
offline infidelity. CyberPsychology Behavior, 6
(6), 569-579.
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How can Virtual Sex be real Infidelity?

• Sexual desire
• Fantasising about the object of ones desire

And just what was that little window you clicked
off when I came in?
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Not all about Sex Emotional Infidelity

• mental exclusivity
• sexual exclusivity

Lets face it. If the hot and horny sluts
really wanted us, they would have called by now.
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• Version A Mark and Jennifer have been going out
  for over a year. Then Mark realises that Jennifer
  has developed a relationship with someone else
  over the Internet
• Version B Jennifer and Mark have been going out
  for over a year. Then Jennifer realises that Mark
  has developed a relationship with someone else
  over the Internet

Whitty, M. T. (2005). The 'Realness' of
Cyber-cheating Men and women's representations
of unfaithful Internet relationships. Social
Science Computer Review, 23 (1), 5767.
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• Example of emotional infidelity

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It is cheating. She said rather calmly. No
Im not cheating. Its not like Im bonking her
anyway. Youre the one Im with and like I said I
have NO intentions of meeting her. He hopped
into bed. Its emotional cheating. She said
getting annoyed. How so? He asked, amusement
showing in his eyes. Cheating isnt necessarily
physical. Thats one side of it He pulled the
sheets over him and rolled over. Well I know
you have not met her yet thats why, but Im
still a little annoyed, Mark. She sat on the
edge of the bed. Dont be mad. Youre the one I
love. So how is it emotional cheating. He sat
up. Youre keeping stuff from me. Relationships
are about trust! How can I trust you if you keep
stuff from me about the Internet girl?
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• Example of sexual infidelity

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• Marks obsession with the Internet is sure to
  cause a break-up in the relationship. Jennifer
  discovered, late one night after Mark had left
  his computer that he was partaking in cyber-sex
  with a woman by the name of Buxan Blonde
  bombshell Jennifer confronted Mark who admitted
  that he was having an online relationship with
  this woman and that she was satisfying his sexual
  fantasies. This caused a relationship breakdown
  between Jennifer and Mark. (4FM)

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• Consequences of infidelity?

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Breaking down of trust

• From that day forth she began to question who
  was on the phone, who he stays out for drinks
  with, and who the girls are who he works with,
  Jennifer tried to guess his email password and
  checked his voicemail messages. Eventually it was
  mistrust, the belief of deceit and the obsession
  that ended the relationship. (43FM)

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Revenge

• Jennifer then decides to play a little game
  through a little bit of deception and assumed
  identity, she manages to assume the identity of
  Marks lover when he is chatting and assumes the
  identity of Mark when his lover is online.
  Jennifer then convinces them to meet each other,
  assuming they both love each other Mark and his
  Internet lover agree When Jennifer met the
  Internet lover she bludgeoned her to death with a
  keyboard, shoved a mouse up her arse and then
  replaced her head with a monitor. Transporting
  her body to the meeting with Mark was next. Mark
  walks in to find the defaced body, due to his
  shock Jennifer was able to capture him. Keeping
  him as a human punching bag, whenever she
  returned home after a bad day she would kick the
  shit out of him. She would never forget or allow
  herself to be betrayed, and Mark had no choice
  but to remember what he had done. (38MM)

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Not everyone defined it as infidelity

• the interaction was just a friendship
• the interaction was merely flirtation or fun
• the relationship was with an object (computer) in
  virtual space, rather than with a real human
  being
• the interaction was with two people who had never
  met and did not ever intend to meet and,
• it could not be infidelity as there was no
  physical sex taking place.

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• The Internet is not a homogeneous space

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Is a virtual affair in second life really
cheating?
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Object Relations Theory

• Potential space
• Transitional objects
• Play

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• Online games

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Rules in an online game

• In the game itself
• Decisions made by players when they role play or
  interact with others

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Are acts considered immoral offline permitted in
an online game?

• Kill/murder
• Steal
• Torture
• Cannibalism

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Grand Theft Auto
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Manhunt
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More fantasy than reality?

• What if the visual representation was closer to
  real life?

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What cant you do in a game?

• Rape
• Incest
• Paedophilia

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Philosophies

• Kant Duty of care
• Utilitarian
• Hume subjective response
• Disgust
• Shame

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Conclusions

• Not one homogenous space
• Seriousness in play
• Not everything should be possible
• Still evolving Will the same rules apply?