[Air-l] Fwd: LG people and internet identities

[Annette Markham]

Hi all,

A colleague of mine asked me some questions related to a specific legal 
case involving gay male adults and underage children in anonymous chatrooms.

>Could you let me know of any research dealing with the relative fluidity 
>or "realism" of identity on the internet?
>
>Recently several adult gay men were caught in a sting operation after 
>entering a chat room, where they encountered a police operative 
>masquerading as a minor. When the gay men showed up for an assignation, 
>they were arrested. The men claim that identity is especially unreliable 
>in gay chat rooms where sex is a main topic of activity, and that they had 
>no strong basis for judging what characteristics (including age) the 
>person they would meet might have. The meeting was thus an opportunity to 
>find out the reality, not an act of solicitation based on a presumed reality.

I believe the question could be usefully addressed by quantitative studies, 
which I'm not as familiar with.  I'm hoping that some of you might have 
some leads...

Putting aside, if possible, all the complicating factors and questions:

1.  What percentage of people hanging out in anonymous chatrooms indicate 
that they believe the what others say about their identity?

2.  In chatrooms primarily dealing with sex, is there more likelihood that 
people would assume others present false information about their ASL?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Annette



******************************
Annette N. Markham, Ph. D.

Department of Communication
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 W. Harrison St (m/c 132)
Chicago, IL  60607-7137
amarkham at uic.edu
http://ascend.comm.uic.edu/~amarkham/
******************************