New Delhi: People who are bullied at work or in school may not be able to escape their tormentors in the virtual world, researchers are quoted as saying by Daily Mail.
Millions of people have logged on to Second Life, an internet craze which allows a user to create an online alter ego. Researchers from the University of Nottingham claim that bullying, known as griefing in cyberspace, is as rife for those who move into the virtual world as it is in the real world.
Dr Iain Coyne, who helped carry out a study of bullying in Second Life told Daily Mail: "Similar to bullying at school and work, power is a key factor in griefing.
Dr Coyne set up a cyber-based focus group to discuss the problem of bullying within the virtual environment. They rented a plot of virtual land and interviewed 50 residents, known as avatars, about their experiences. Their responses were monitored by psychologists in the real world.
They found that newcomers to Second Life are often subjected to griefing when they first enter the domain, in which people communicate through instant messaging.
Some newbies reported being physically attacked when moving to a new area within the Second Life world, while others claimed their virtual homes had been destroyed and they had been shot at.
The team believes bullying in the Second Life world, which so far has around 6.8 million residents, can impact on real life.
"We are trying to determine how and why griefing happens and the impact it can have on first life. It is clear griefing in Second Life can have negative consequences in the real as well as the virtual world," Dr Chesney was quoted as saying.
"Bullying can be extremely damaging and institutions - whether schools, companies or universities - have a responsibility to protect their staff or students from this kind of behaviour.
"Cyber-bullying is on the increase and is one example of the many dysfunctional ways in which individuals use the internet.
"If we are to be in a position to address the problem, we need to be able to understand the nature and extent to which it occurs - that is why I think the research project is an important one."
The population of Second Life, which opened in 2003, is growing at around 20 per cent each month.
With excerpts from Daily Mail
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