Reflection on Sex in Cyberspace

The Internet today has become a near necessity of many peoples existence. From even 5 years ago the Internet has become more accessible, fast and user friendly then ever before. The information age has taken the world by storm and the ability of more and more people young and old to access the internet has made it the Information super Highway, however as great as it is, its not without flaws.

Most would agree the largest problem with the internet is the way it fadelessly caters for all sorts of predators. This goes hand in hand with the multi-billion dollar pornography industry facilitated over the Internet. Some suggest, with growing support, that Internet pornography is the “new crack cocaine” (Singel, 2004) – “leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction.” The internet is the perfect delivery system of information, thus pornography manufacturers can ride on the back the merit that is the “Information super highway”. Likening internet porn use, or addiction is extreme however it remains to be seen, the lasting psychological effects of heavy and continuous internet pornography use. Singel (2004) quotes Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy… according to Layden internet pornography addiction is harder to recover from then addiction to cocaine. The notion here is, cocaine users can be completely rid of their substance abuse problem for good, in the sense it is no longer in their body, whereas images in the mind can remain forever. A major concern is the ability of younger and younger users to have access to such explicit material. The senate inquiry that Layden was a part of, heeded the warning and suggested that federal funded studies should be conducted in to the Physiological effects of pornography.

Largely it would be considered that men would be the core recipient of the “internet porn addict” label, however Marnie Ferree (2003) suggests, that women are not at all exempt. Ferree goes onto to propose, in society standards for women’s behavior limit their expression, especially sexually, and women’s participation in internet pornography or cybersex and the like is way outside those stereotypical boundaries many would expect. Considering the money spent on forms of cybersex exceeds the total amount spent on computer hard-and-software, it is ignorant to ignore this as a growing problem.

Considering these two references were both from more than six years ago, one can only imagine the implications of little to no education to the public, as writing this blog is the first I have ever heard about internet pornography addiction. Furthermore the silent nature of the addiction makes this somewhat insidious industry and problem forever troublesome for psychological professionals in the event of serious implications. The way this activity on the internet harbors the very things in society most of us frown upon makes this in the future a real epidemic worry. I think education for parents and a lot more awareness of the problem is essential, because most internet porn addicts wouldn’t see a way out. Psychological professionals have their work cut out.

“Shared experiences create a sense of reality”
It is hard for me to fathom the concept of a Second Life. Life would, for most anyway, distinguish one from the dead, experiencing, actively participating, achieving in real things is the cornerstone of life. Second Life for instance, provides thousands of people with a virtual reality... with some arguably realistic elements. The available exchange of second life money into trade-able currency in the real world is its most amazing innovation. Not to mention the ability for business to grow within the virtual world and for people to run business ventures from their studies at home.

Experiences are the utmost REAL thing you can feel, touch, taste, see, hear and interact with. They are what makes us all unique, they are what teach us our lessons (or sometimes not), They are what make us learn, grow and evolve. A virtual reality created by humans can merely be exactly that..... Virtual, So the question is, can experiences in a virtual world like Second Life ever truly replace real experiences? Real life experiences are what makes life exciting, depressing, forever changing and never stopping until the end. Nothing in a virtual world could ever truly compare to the real thing.

Perhaps interactions over a world wide virtual network like Second Life embody what we consider to be similar to reality, but on a computer, however this is just simply a way for one to interact. The fact that virtual money can be exchanged in to trade able currency around the world makes it realer then it seems. Moreover it just seems like a way of escaping from a reality that perhaps you never really had any control over. When you are on Second Life you are not Joe Blow from Timbuktu... you are what ever you want to be... literally. When one is on Second Life, they can embody whomever they want, lie about where they are from and what they do. Lies like these in real life tend to catch up with you pretty fast. One cant live a life and pretend to be something their not, it tends to come crashing down.

Time magazines Kristina Dell suggests Second Life is a way of exploring self expression in different ways. From different forms of cybersex, to virtual activism, Second life provides an avenue for users to express themselves in ways that maybe are too risky in real life. However, freedom of expression is one thing, but using the site to cater for what are otherwise illegal activities, is wrong. The FBI in 2007 prompted Linden Labs (creators of second life) to shut down online casino's as online gambling is illegal in the US. Also European police have been monitoring the distribution and trading of pornographic material of real children on the site, shutting down and taking action if necessary. Many European Governments are not all too happy that adult Avatars can in fact have sex with child like Avatars. Since the outrage Linden has banned and controlled much of this lewd content on the site. Furthermore Linden Labs has lawsuits against them constantly regarding the terms and conditions of the ownership of virtual Real Estate and so forth. Considering up to $7-8 million (figures from 2007) changes hands nearly every month and the site apparently is only growing in popularity, Linden has much more of this to look forward to. Moreover, "griefers" are running rife through the site as there are no penalties to deter them from harassment.

It would seem despite creating some sort of euphoric atmosphere within the constraints of the internet, Linden Labs, in the beginning anyway forgot that people are capable of anything. Unwittingly they created a medium for crime to be committed, and at least for now anyway, they are taking the steps to remedy this.

The simple fact of the matter is that Second Life is not reality, it is not a kin to what we have in the here and now and it will never replace it. For Meadow's to say "this tells me there is something real happening here" is absurd. Real is tangible, real is the First and only Life one is privileged to enjoy. Perhaps what Meadows is trying to say is "reality is what we make it" and if you want your reality to be contrived, controlled and manipulated by a computer networking company... then, as the old adage tell us "each to their own", but if you ask me... you're missing out man!

The Australia first party has extremist views on many things... but as a recognised democratically elected body it cannot be extremist group in the conventional sense. The even Proclaim that "All nationalists and patriotic Australians now have a political vehicle"... The whole "new world order" cant help but remind us all of those wild malitia groups.

Also the apparent hate campaignes are closely alligned with Australians Against Further Immigration... and considering how proud we are of our apparent Multiculturalism and the Australian League of Rights, these views seem extremist

It's disappointng from my point of view that AFP (Australia First Party), recognises that only their vision is right, but more importantly that Asutralia doesnt have identity, freedom and idependance in the way that it should. Whereas I feel our national identity and freedoms are as strong as ever. Australians are proud to be Australian and work hard to make Australia live up to it's lucky country tag.

An extremist group would be apart of some kind of heavy demonstration or rebellion agaisnt the norm. However it would seem that the political of AFP views evolve around "We demand that YOU the people should be represented in the parliaments and not be the victims of cynical, corrupt, and foreign-loyal party machines"... As far as most of us know, we just passively believe and continue to swallow what politicians continue to feed us... I think it's not such a bad idea to have a more extremist type watchdog of the "corruption" that's supposedly going on inside the walls of parliament. Despite Politicians being democratically elected they can't always be representative of their whole public. Most of the public may disagree with reforms to policies or changes to different systems, or maybe even wasteful spending (Hello MyKi - Victorian Government), but they would never do anything about it in an active way. In a way the Australia First Party caters for the people who are willing to have a voice on these topics and work towards reforms inline with their vision of Australia.

The Australia First Party Although to me (as a severly rigt wing politcally minded) seem somewhat primitive and preachy in their views, I can't help but admire their inititive to introduce..."the Implementation of Citizens' Initiated Referendum and Voters' Recall of parliamentarians, so that you the people can propose the laws and get rid of unresponsive parliamentarians" This is interesting, in the sense that imagine the power placed back into the publics hands. Although it would not be inequitable if used all the time, or as a knee jerk reaction but as another form of Checks and Balances to the supposed "free wheeling" government could only be a good thing.

The Australia First party has extremist views but they are not running around burning flags of bashing homosexual people. They are a legitimate political body that has taken extremeist views to the parliament and allows its followers representation. Wanting a better Australia is everyones dream, but who is to say whose vision of this better Australia is right.