Chat Room Violence

Chatrooms have become an increasingly popular venue for many people to congregate and "chat" with each other by typing and receiving responses in real time while being "online" via the internet. Many rooms are created for educating the public, discussing a single topic, marketing, and even for cyber sex. The main reason most chatrooms are created is to make an online community where people who either live in the same general area or have something in common can share experiences, find friends and discuss "hot topics". These online communities usually consist of a group of people from two to 50 and the same individuals consistently return to same room. Internet providers such as MySpace, America Online and others provide chatrooms to its members.

Many online communities are very much like the neighborhood in which you live. Over a period of time, relationships may develop including friendship, affairs (online and off), and meeting in real life as singles or in a group at designated places. At the same time these personal connections begin to develop, especially online, the personalities of each screen name (and the person behind it) along with a specific style of writing and their ability to convey different emotional responses to other statements or questions posted into the chatroom.

This emotional connection to other individuals is often very real and is the same as those often found in your neighborhood. You may be passing acquaintances with a few and only periodically say hello to each other - yet never make a real connection. Others have become good friends who came together online and then at a local coffee shop to interact. Some even become best friends and who remain friends for the rest of their lives. Couples, who have decided they are right for each other online, then form a romantic relationship outside of the chatroom itself.

At the same time, these self-same personalities also find they are in conflict with others in the room. Marriages, divorces, and child custody situations often occur through chatroom interactions. Some conflicts may be due to comments made by one to another, perceived slights, racial or ethnic slurs, derogatory remarks, and bullying in general that is often directed toward a single member of the room or even an entire group.

Today, it is becoming more evident that online communities have also spilled over into the real world of violence. Although sexual predators against children are more commonly written about; however, there are also predators against adults. Being a predator or constantly a bully online has caused individuals to commit or be victims of harassment and stalking, assaults, arson, rape, suicide, and murder based on the relationship they developed with another person in a chatroom and the highly charged emotional feelings that resulted. The question that needs to be asked is, "Is there a chance of something dangerous occurring due to being a member of an online chatroom?

In 2005, at least two girls and three other women were raped and held against their will by then 22-year-old Samuel Levitan, of Collinsville, Illinois, who had lured the women to his home through an internet chatroom. He was caught after a 15-year-old girl told the police she had been assaulted and raped by Levitan, a student at a local college. She later committed suicide. Police still believe there are more women who never came forward and that some may even have been killed.

In 2005, one 25-year-old man, Petty Officer Russell Tavares, drove 1,300 miles from his home in Virginia to Elm Mott, Texas over being called a "nerd" in an online chatroom. To exact revenge, he committed arson by burning down the home of Texas resident John Anderson who fortunately was not injured. Tavares received a 7-year sentence for felony arson.

In a plea deal in a murder for hire case, Matthew McGreevy of Half Moon Bay,Los Angeles men he had met in an Internet chatroom to commit the murder for $1000.00. Before the plea agreement, McGreevy had been facing nine years in prison in California, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on December 7, 2000. He received five years probation and two months in the county jail after attempting to have his ex-girlfriend's new fiancé murdered. He had hired two

In another case, three people were found dead in an apparent double murder-suicide. Deloris Heald and Rory Zitur were supposedly people who frequented an online "swingers" chatroom, though all three knew each other. In August 2008, Gerald Heald of Ogilvie, Minnesota, apparently murdered his wife, Deloris "Dede" Heald, and her lover Rory Zitur, after he discovered they were having an affair.

These cases are not isolated or confined to information given in chatrooms. Solicitation or threats of harm have been given through instant messages, blogs, message boards and other types of social online communities. Neither were the individuals involved "ne'er do wells" who spent all of their time online just to interrupt or prey on others. Gary Heald worked for Federated Co-op and his wife, Deloris, was an on-call nurse at a near-by hospital where they lived. Rory Zitur owned an accounting company. Tavares held a job with the Navy with a high level of security clearance as a weapons systems operator at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. McGreevy was a former gym teacher at Half Moon Bay High School. They were all seemingly ordinary "the neighbors next door" type of people.

I have personally witnessed online threats made to others in an America Online chatroom. These threats have ranged from committing crimes such as throwing items on private property or as serious as destruction of private property. Other felony crimes such as assault, rape and murder have been made to individuals using their real names and addresses. Personal information from court websites have been posted, along with altered photographs, real photographs, medical information, home addresses and telephone numbers. When members of the chatroom, many of whom have been members for several years, are asked why they make such threats, they say nothing will happen or they would never be caught because it is "online" or "just a font in a chatroom".

Those threatened have called law enforcement agencies because they fear for their property and often, their very lives. In almost all cases, these victims have been told there is nothing they can do unless someone physically comes to their property and commits a crime. Yet, laws such as for the crime of "Cyber-stalking" do exist that supposedly give victims of internet crimes a means of stopping the harassment or the posting of personal information on the Internet. You can check the laws of your state to see what protections and safeguards are in place for your personal safety.

Yet, the question continues to be unanswered for many victims. What happens if an angry or predatory member of your chatroom comes knocking on (or crashing through) your door? Although the safest way to protect yourself is to not give out any personal information to anyone you meet online, the very dynamics of "chatting" in a room creates a sense of belonging or knowing the other person. People need to remember that someone they have met in a chatroom is a stranger unless you knew them in other real life social settings. The 16-year-old boy may be a 39-year-old serial rapist. The stay at home mom may be a sociopathic psychopath just looking for a way to attack you, verbally or in person. The 50-year-old lawyer may be a 20 year convicted sexual predator. Think before you type your personal identifying information, even something as simple as "I go to the Acme Mall every day at noon to walk." Someone could be watching.