The following brief essay is speculative in nature. According to the cultural pundits we are in the beginnings of a technological revolution as significant as the Industrial Revolution. Over the next few years Internet usage for all purposes is set to exponentially increase. As with all significant technological revolutions the Internet will re-shape our relationships to our fellow humans and to our selves if not altering our very conception of what it means to be human. From my own personal experience of "surfing" all I can say is that at the moment aspects of "cyberspace" seem to be very strange. As a forensic psychotherapist I am interested in the meaning of Internet and computer crimes and how these both resemble and differ from crimes committed before the dawn of the computer and Internet age.
I think fraud committed by and with the aid of computers is boring in comparison with what is going on "out there." For instance, there are web-sites which seem to be intended to aid and abet criminals. Some will provide information and software to assist hackers. Under the guise of a right of access to information one of the meanings of "hacking" seems to be breaking into the parental bedroom to ferret out the "secrets."
Cyber-stalking has become its own business. This is the stalking and harassment of an individual over the Internet through the use of e-mail etc. There are web sites dedicated to the victims of stalking and cyber-stalking (not how-to but how to stop). There are on-line courses offered by universities on cyber-stalking. I even came across a web site which seemed to be aimed at helping real-life stalkers under the guise of their right to freedom of information. This web-site had links attached to it to different on-line dating agencies so that those who were of a mind to go stalking could have a ready made supply of victims. On a much more gruesome note, while following some links from a criminology course at an American university, I came across a web-site which gave instructions on how to butcher the human body so that it was fit for consumption. A cookery class for high-tech cannibals. I really was not sure how tongue in cheek this was.
Many people use the Internet to talk in on-line communities. On-line romances are blossoming. Age and sex can be disguised. Cyber-sex is apparently quite common in on-line chat communities (I am not speaking from any personal experience). A few years ago there was a celebrated case of an on-line rape. In this one on-line community a particular individual managed to get some form of "mind-control" over another individual and "forced" them to have cyber-sex against their will and better judgement (I kid you not). I have not yet heard of any one suffering from PTSD as a result of their on-line experiences.
In another case a man committed a real-life murder and then told his chat-room associates in an on-line community about this. They did not inform the authorities as they thought this would be a breach of the code of confidentiality of this particular community.
According to the psychoanalyst and sociologist, Sherry Turkle, who has studied computer culture for over twenty years, these on-line ‘MUDS’ (multi-user domains) offer great opportunities to explore different aspects of the self. A man can assume the identity of a woman and vice versa without the need to be a slave to fashion. She thinks that this may allow for a greater fluidity within the self. Individuals become very involved in these alternative interactive worlds. To some, real life is just an alternative world.
However, I am particularly interested in computer and Internet crime because of the way in which the computer is often perceived as a "thinking" object. Certain aspects of computer crime, particularly various malicious acts of sabotage directed against computers, seem to then move into the Bionic domain of attacks on links and thought processes themselves.