BDSM in Second Life
In Second Life there are long term and thriving BDSM and D/s communities. The advantage to every person in Second Life to being behind an avatar is that everyone can be the person they imagine themselves to be. Lonely housewives with absent husbands and children to care for in the virtual world of Second Life can be Goddesses with as many attentive men as they wish. These women they can be in control in the virtual world of Second Life, even when they feel little control of their lives in real life. For men who may have difficulty finding dates in real life due to age, physical appearance, or disability, they can be recognized as sexual and even desirable by real women, all within the safety of the virtual world of Second Life. Similarly, there are men who would never be Dominant in real life who can be appreciated by real women who would want to express their sexuality as submissive in real life but can only find a safe outlet for their submission in a virtual world.
It is even possible that Dominance and submission relationships work better in a virtual world than they do in real life. A submissive person can take instructions from an unseen and possibly all powerful person elsewhere in the world. A submissive can start with a Dominant, doing as they are told, but keep the safety of being able to end the relationship by canceling their account. Then if a Dominant and submissive are a good fit for a Second Life D/s relationship, they can begin having a real life relationship where the Dominant can control the submissive through voice, Skype, and video. Either as a Dominant or as a submissive, the physical separation can make the relationship more intense than if it happened in real life. In practical terms, the way that remote Domination can work is for the Dominant to provide instructions for the submissive either through email or Second Life and a submissive can send back photographic proof that they are behaving as instructed.
It is in this sending back of proof that a submissive can become genuinely vulnerable. By the nature of the relationship, Dominants may ask submissives to take pictures of themselves nude, in forms of self bondage, and possibly with degrading words written on their body. The fear is that these personal pictures could be posted to the Internet for everyone to see. In the D/s community, a Dominant posting pictures of their submissive to the Internet without consent is considered out of bounds for their relationship, but the implicit fear of this happening can be used to help the submissive feel more vulnerable.
Images alone may not make the submissive as vulnerable, as it may be hard to find someone with only their picture. If the submissive truly wants to be completely vulnerable to a remote dominant they can also give them personal information. In this day when every person who has access to the Internet can post anything they wish for the world to see the greatest vulnerability is reputational risk. Any name that is put on the Internet is searchable by anyone forever. After a submissive provides personal information to a Dominant there is always a risk from that time on that they can be revealed to the world, possibly with lifetime ramifications. If these images allow the submissive to be identified while participating in degrading activities it is likely that the submissive could be embarrassed in front of family, friends, and employers.
Personal embarrassment aside, depending on the line of work the person is in, if their employer becomes aware that the person’s is a sexual fetishist, this could lead to them being fired from their job. Worse, many employers now routinely do a Google search as part of their evaluation of potential employees. If an employer finds embarrassing information about the person they may not be able to get hired to another position. Depending what is depicted in the pictures, the person may lose any chance of caring for children, serving in a public office, or working in many professional customer support positions. Ultimately, depending on the line of work that a person is in having embarrassing images of them searchable on the Internet can seriously limit a person’s career and lifetime earnings.
Although blackmail is not generally part of a Dominant and submissive relationship, once the Dominant has these pictures there is always a risk that they can post them to the Internet where they could be found by people who know the submissive. Depending on how much information the remote Dominant has about the submissive these pictures can include their real name and so be easily connected with the submissive.