Hi all, A colleague of mine asked me some questions related to a specific legal case involving gay male adults and underage children in anonymous chatrooms.
Could you let me know of any research dealing with the relative fluidity or "realism" of identity on the internet?
Recently several adult gay men were caught in a sting operation after entering a chat room, where they encountered a police operative masquerading as a minor. When the gay men showed up for an assignation, they were arrested. The men claim that identity is especially unreliable in gay chat rooms where sex is a main topic of activity, and that they had no strong basis for judging what characteristics (including age) the person they would meet might have. The meeting was thus an opportunity to find out the reality, not an act of solicitation based on a presumed reality.
I believe the question could be usefully addressed by quantitative studies, which I'm not as familiar with. I'm hoping that some of you might have some leads... Putting aside, if possible, all the complicating factors and questions: 1. What percentage of people hanging out in anonymous chatrooms indicate that they believe the what others say about their identity? 2. In chatrooms primarily dealing with sex, is there more likelihood that people would assume others present false information about their ASL? Thanks for your thoughts, Annette ****************************** Annette N. Markham, Ph. D. Department of Communication University of Illinois at Chicago 1007 W. Harrison St (m/c 132) Chicago, IL 60607-7137 amarkham@uic.edu http://ascend.comm.uic.edu/~amarkham/ ******************************