Why Must You Be Mean to Me? - Crime, Punishment and Online Personality

Abstract:     
The development of online social spaces such as YouTube, MySpace and Second Life, has created new opportunities for their users to behave towards others in a way which constitutes offline offences such as harassment. It has also enabled users to create online personae which are distinct from, and in many cases not obviously connected to, their real-world personality. This article explores three questions: whether the redress mechanisms built in to those online spaces provide sufficient remedies that the criminal law should, at least for the present, stand aloof; whether existing criminal law can protect those online personae; and whether the law might be extended to protect them on the basis that they are some kind of property or exhibit sufficient elements of personhood.

Keywords: internet, crime, harassment, virtual worlds, online communities, personhood

JEL Classifications: K14, K19, K39, K42

Working Paper Series