If Your Vibrator Is Hacked, Is It a Sex Crime?
gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
But yes, the question is interesting.
I can imagine situations where unknown people taking control is part of the play.
Those inclined to offer defenses of the form that 'it was just a prank, 1337 h4x0r5 couldn't have known how it would impact the victim' should brush up on the 'eggshell skull' rule in tort law, which basically says the person who commits a tort is liable for all consequences, not just easily foreseeable ones, and the concept of strict liability, which can mean you're fully responsible for the outcomes of some criminal acts even without proof of intent. Judges often pieces of existing conceptual frameworks when presented with a novel situation on which they have to issue a ruling.
I mean, otherwise you could grope strangers on the subway while keeping your eyes closed and claim that you weren't looking at them so you didn't know that your groping was causing them distress. Then again pretty offer some pretty wacky defenses, especially where sex is concerned.
If a vibrator was hacked and messed with but nobody was using it, then it's just hacking.
But if someone was using it, then I think a sex crime charge is fair, especially if the hacker knows its being used intimately, which would be akin to being a peeping Tom, but creepily closer.
Charging it as a sex crime seems a bit off, least of all because of all of the treatment of sex offenders in the US. There seems to be a qualitative difference between turning on a publicly-exposed vibrating buttplug and forcibly inserting something into the rectum of an unwilling participant.
Like, is it really reasonable to say that somebody should lose the right to vote and bear arms because they issued a POST request to an unsecured web server in their neighborhood that happened to be a sex toy?
EDIT: I don't want to sound like I'm blaming victims here, but using toys that are properly locked down is the responsibility of the participants--much like making sure they're sterile.
I think the sex offender registry has a lot of...how to put this..."societal-technical" debt, a reasonable solution to a serious problem that causes all sorts of harm on its own. I think that's a topic better suited for an entirely separate conversation.
Despite your "I don't want to sound..." prefix, that is literally the definition of victim-blaming.
Just because I leave the door to my house unlocked, it doesn't mean people have the right to enter it without my permission, and it's not my "fault" if they do.
Engaging in sexual contact requires consent. I expect it's legally debatable if remotely turning on a vibrator that's already inserted into someone counts as "sexual contact" (I would say it is, or if not, should be), but if it is, it requires consent.
I think intent and foreknowledge does matter here: if someone just found a random web server and sent some requests to it without knowing what it is or what it does, I'd say that's unwise, but not criminal. But if it's obvious from the name advertised by the device and/or the names of the endpoints accessed, or requires knowledge of a protocol specific to a connected sex toy, I'd say that should be enough to establish nefarious sexual intent.
People need to take back some shred of personal responsibility if I get piss drunk and pass out on a bench and wake up without any of my stuff sure the assholes who stole my phone and wallet are still criminals but i also was a moron for getting piss drunk and passing out in public.
If you get robbed because you didn’t locked the door then it’s just as much your fault.
We don’t live in a vacuum we know exactly how to avoid various situations which is why we don’t leave a laptop visible in the backseat of a car when we park it in public, why we secure our bikes, lock our doors and don’t use 123456 as a password.
I think the concept of "fault" is really just not useful here. Sure, if I forget to lock my door, and I get robbed, I share some of the fault ("just as much", though -- hell no), but... so what? The result is the same as if I did lock the door and they broke in anyway. I certainly screwed up, but that doesn't somehow make it more moral/legal/ethical for the thief to come in and steal.
> We don’t live in a vacuum we know exactly how to avoid various situations which is why we don’t leave a laptop visible in the backseat of a car when we park it in public, why we secure our bikes, lock our doors and don’t use 123456 as a password.
The problem is that this is a super cynical view of society. We are actively making society worse by thinking this. I've been in countries where people park their scooters on the sidewalk and leave their helmets unsecured on the seat for hours. No one steals, because that just isn't done.
And what's so magically different? If I go and park my car in a safe suburb in the US, I can leave my laptop visible in the backseat without consequence. If I do that in certain parts of a city, well, there goes my window and my laptop. Do we really want to teach people that they have to be paranoid about everything? Do we really want it to be accepted and ok that your belongings aren't safe inside a locked car? That's a pretty shitty society, if so.
I hesitate to use this example since it's a sensitive topic, but you can easily extend this to the tired "well if she had been dressed mode modestly, maybe she wouldn't have gotten raped". Obviously getting a bike stolen because you didn't lock it is nowhere near as bad. But you're muddling cause and effect here. "The bike got stolen because it was unsecured." No, the bike got stolen because there are assholes who steal bikes. "That woman got raped because she wore suggestive clothing." No, she got raped because there are piece of shit assholes who rape women.
What is "nefarious sexual intent"? Turning on a buttplug or vibrator unexpectedly?
Also, why do you think it counts as sexual contact? If somebody just uses the access to flash the lights on it in a silly way, is that nefarious sexual intent?
As an actuator, a vibrator has a very limiting set of features for an attacker to exploit and act upon. As a sensor, I don't think they're very advanced.