Abuse Reporting: Threats of IRL Harm

[Reaver Ingraham]

I recently submitted an abuse report because a user threatened to harm someone offline, but there was no category for this. I feel there should be, as threats of doxxing, swatting or physical harm aren't uncommon, unfortunately.

 

Has Linden Labs considered adding this? How do other users handle threats of harassment or harm offline?

[WereBeast Alpha]

There isn't much LL can do about those issues they would just say to contact your Real life police department and then the police will determine if the threat is real or not. However, most police won't even investigate online harassment claims because of a lack of knowledge and resources. 

[Coffee Pancake]

Abuse report and hope for the best.

Practice online hygiene and prevent people from being able to connect the dots and reach you IRL.

From personal experience - Do not depend on LL do do anything about anything that happens outside of SL, once the abuse has actually transitioned they are "unable to do anything".

RL law enforcement are unlikely to assist - I was told to just stop using the internet. The whole internet, and should my harasser show up to my house and follow through, well .. I could call them then.

 

[Reaver Ingraham]

31 minutes ago, WereBeast Alpha said:

There isn't much LL can do about those issues they would just say to contact your Real life police department and then the police will determine if the threat is real or not. However, most police won't even investigate online harassment claims because of a lack of knowledge and resources. 

Yes, it seems to be in a practical gray area right now. I believe a lot of states in the US, and countries abroad, are increasing the criminal penalties for online threats. To your point, most law enforcement doesn't seem very well equipped or inclined to pursue such matters. 

[Reaver Ingraham]

31 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Abuse report and hope for the best.

Practice online hygiene and prevent people from being able to connect the dots and reach you IRL.

From personal experience - Do not depend on LL do do anything about anything that happens outside of SL, once the abuse has actually transitioned they are "unable to do anything".

RL law enforcement are unlikely to assist - I was told to just stop using the internet. The whole internet, and should my harasser show up to my house and follow through, well .. I could call them then.

 

Yeah, protecting oneself through, as you put it, "online hygiene" seems the best approach, which is lamentable. On this particular matter, a couple of abuse reports were filed so we are, indeed, hoping for the best.

I do hope that LL takes action in this matter, at least when it comes to the use of their platform to proliferate these threats. But, in any event, I think it would be good for them to allow for reporting this kind of abuse. Right now, none of the categories reply.

Thank you both, Alpha and Pancake, for these considered and compassionate replies.

[Perrie Juran]

You would use "targeted behavior intended to disrupt" but as stated in

https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000153188-i-m-being-harassed-how-do-i-stop-it-

"As with any harassment, if you fear this may have an impact on your real life, such as threats of personal harm or putting your actual safety at risk, we encourage you to also notify your local authorities so that they can assist you in taking the appropriate steps to ensure your real life safety."

And while your local authorities will probably say there is nothing they can do insist on filing a report so that it is on record.

[Akane Nacht]

If the person knows who I am and where I live: screenshot + call police 

If not: rightclick + mute

Since I never tell any stranger on the internet my address or real name, LL has already provided all the tools I need. 

 

[Reaver Ingraham]

1 hour ago, Perrie Juran said:

You would use "targeted behavior intended to disrupt" but as stated in

https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000153188-i-m-being-harassed-how-do-i-stop-it-

"As with any harassment, if you fear this may have an impact on your real life, such as threats of personal harm or putting your actual safety at risk, we encourage you to also notify your local authorities so that they can assist you in taking the appropriate steps to ensure your real life safety."

And while your local authorities will probably say there is nothing they can do insist on filing a report so that it is on record.

Great advice, and thanks for directing me to the relevant passage of the solutions section. We'll use "targeted behavior" in the future, though I hope it doesn't get this severe again.

[Gwin LeShelle]

It's not only time that LL adds such a category, it's overdue they finally stop calling such situations "resident to resident" incident and excuse doing nothing with it.

I agree with Coffee, don't give anyone online real information about you, with wich they could track you down. People in SL that aren't part of my RL friends circle (they were before SL did not meet them here) never have information of me like that.

Some people can get really pushy about such things in SL but if they don't accept your boundaries when you say no, just lie to them or block them, because red flag anyways. There's one dude in SL that still thinks he knows it all about me, when in fact he knows nothing at all. He's still stalking my SL and Flickr activity *waves at him* but I surely don't care anymore. We first met in SL in like 2007 or 2008 so such people can be really really persistent, and LL should ban such people, period. 

They have the IMs and other messages so they see what some of those people say for horrible things (I had a friend she got really nasty harassed and in the forums here you see often people asking about harassment), and they chose to do nothing. But dare you say one wrong word in the forums and you get even banned in world 😂 leaves you with the bad feeling as resident  that they care for the forums because they can be seen all publicly and what happens in SL is not seen all open, so not harming their image in the same way. Theres no other reason for it being handled that way otherwise, but why not say when people fight in the forums it's "resident to resident" incident?! There is no logic to it.

I really hope your friend gets rid of the person and/or finds real help 💜

Edited June 5, 2023 by Gwin LeShelle

[WereBeast Alpha]

18 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Abuse report and hope for the best.

Practice online hygiene and prevent people from being able to connect the dots and reach you IRL.

From personal experience - Do not depend on LL do do anything about anything that happens outside of SL, once the abuse has actually transitioned they are "unable to do anything".

RL law enforcement are unlikely to assist - I was told to just stop using the internet. The whole internet, and should my harasser show up to my house and follow through, well .. I could call them then.

 

That is what i was told too and I was like seriously man? Are you that lazy? Lesson learned until something drastic happens but I know some people won't do any harm over online stuff. 

[Paul Hexem]

19 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Abuse report and hope for the best.

Practice online hygiene and prevent people from being able to connect the dots and reach you IRL.

From personal experience - Do not depend on LL do do anything about anything that happens outside of SL, once the abuse has actually transitioned they are "unable to do anything".

RL law enforcement are unlikely to assist - I was told to just stop using the internet. The whole internet, and should my harasser show up to my house and follow through, well .. I could call them then.

 

 

55 minutes ago, WereBeast Alpha said:

That is what i was told too and I was like seriously man? Are you that lazy? Lesson learned until something drastic happens but I know some people won't do any harm over online stuff. 

One of those harsh realities of life is that we gotta take our own steps to protect ourselves. Relying on LL or police (or anyone else for that matter) is a fool's errand.

I'm lucky enough to be someone that can say "I'll be waiting" as a much scarier threat than any attempts to find me would be, but I feel for people that don't have the same resources I do. It's straight up criminal how little the corporations that enable the behavior do to actually prevent it.

[PheebyKatz]

If you need a longsword, I can sell you one for a reasonable price. I'ts carbon steel, and holds a nice edge.

I don't really need it since mastering the arts of Wudang Gongfu. I just clap my hands and they fall over, now.

Seriously though, if butthurt, basement-dwelling neckbeards try to give you a hard time, just block them. Threats are how cowards scare people, and in about 999,999 out of 1,000,000 cases, the threatening party is more traumatized and freaked out than you are. People act threatening when they perceive a threat (to self, ego, self-image), and any person who goes off about all of what they're going to do to you, in my experience anyway, is full of hot air and knows it. They're terrified of you and can't admit it. Poor babies.

The last time someone threatened me online I showed them their own clipboard data and they went offline for a week. They thought I'd hacked their computer (not really though, just their browser data), and were terrified I was going to dump their computer's contents onto the internet.

This was moments after their rant about how they had hacked this, that, and the other, had botnets, etc. They were full of hot air, and a simple trick exposed it. Pathetic.

The sort of nerds who go all Unabomber and actually pose a real threat tend to have far more reason than something someone said online. Angry internet people are full of threats. I think some of it is the frustration of knowing they can't actually do anything because they don't actually know that much about how to use a computer, and some of it is an attempt to use other peoples' ignorance of the mysteries of computers against them to inspire fear.

If I were going to dox someone and do terrible things to their RL, I wouldn't be blowing up about it in text to the person I was targeting. People who are yelling aren't the ones to watch out for. It's the ones who don't give any warning that are the real danger.

Not saying don't take threats seriously, but just... block them and move on. In the event they're that one in a million who feels it's worth the time and effort to throw their lives away by stalking someone to the point of attacking them IRL, well, buy a baseball bat, and keep your phone handy. It's always worked for me.

*has been threatened online approximately 546,287,902,854 times*

*has been successfully attacked IRL by butthurt internet people exactly 0 times*

*owns a longsword and knows kung fu, just in case*

Edited June 6, 2023 by PheebyKatz

[cunomar]

My own  sad , erm , foible ? is a viscous objection to keyboard warriors .

I don't know how or why it came about , perhaps is a hangover from when we were all young men with something to prove and i was apt to say when Bill had been mouthing off about Ben in his absence "there he is tell him now what you told us" .

I don't like it so my only recourse is to block , derender , remove myself from the situation , which ultimately just punishes me as my online presence , which was never large anyway , continuously shrinks .

Antagonistic keyboard warriors are universally limp wristed pipsqueaks who never had a life outside of computers . They never had a fight , never bled nor broke a bone because they never got off their fat ass to do anything at all .

Sad that SL brought forth in me all i don't like about myself in place of the rl by all accounts amiable me because the toxic minority are impossibly set to thrive through lack of consequence .

[Theresa Tennyson]

On 6/7/2023 at 7:41 AM, cunomar said:

Antagonistic keyboard warriors are universally limp wristed pipsqueaks who never had a life outside of computers .
 

Mmm hmmm...

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Mmm hmmm...

OMG You are umm..on fleek today!

Thank you so much!!

I had a RL laugh.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

On 6/5/2023 at 12:43 AM, Gwin LeShelle said:

It's not only time that LL adds such a category, it's overdue they finally stop calling such situations "resident to resident" incident and excuse doing nothing with it.

I agree, they may not be able to do something directly but they should at least have a plan and some numbers to give a resident facing this. 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

On 6/5/2023 at 4:44 PM, Paul Hexem said:

I'm lucky enough to be someone that can say "I'll be waiting" 

I feel the same way.