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Last week in Japan, a recently divorced 43-year-old woman was arrested and carted 620 miles across the country to be detained for the murder of her ex-husband. If convicted of this crime, she’ll be looking at a $5000 fine or up to five years in prison.
That seems like a light sentence for the crime, right?
That’s because this woman didn’t kill him. She deleted his avatar in Maple Story.
This woman was jailed on suspicion of “illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.”
The woman was detained after her electronic ex-husband complained about his character’s death to the police. They exchanged account information after the digital wedding, which the vengeful divorcé used to exact her revenge.
The incredible part of this story, beyond a man alerting the police about his Maple Story character’s death, is that there are serious consequences for this crime. There was no physical or real-world revenge plot, but this Japanese woman is facing legitimate consequences for her actions.
While reading this story, I was reminded of when I was on the final level of Sonic the Hedgehog way back when. I was about seven years old, and had never made it that far in the game before. I reluctantly paused the game when a friend came to play, but he wanted to play some Sega Genesis himself and hastily slammed on the reset button, effectively erasing all of my progress. Just so that he could play Shaq Fu or NBA Jam.
I think the rage I felt then could have manifested into savage, real-world consequences. In fact, I’m sure I told on him. But my Mom did what any sane parent would do. She said something along the lines of “I’m sorry, that’s too bad. You’ll have to try again.”
This man effectively told on this woman, and the police didn’t shrug it off with a simple “we’re sorry, that’s too bad. You’ll have to try again.” I’m actually quite impressed they didn’t respond with “are you serious? We have criminals in this city.”
This story is actually a stunning illustration of how firmly engrained online culture is becoming, and how society is evolving to compensate for its growth. The line between real-life with palpable causes, effects, and results and the digital equivalent are only certain to blur as time goes on.
Sound Off
Last post: Nov. 3, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Nikki (Nikki Blight) said on Nov. 3, 2008 at 1:02 pm:
Personally, I'm of the opinion that the guy ought to have been smacked for giving out his account info. Most 13-year-olds know better than that.