The prime differences in sexual harassment across media lie mostly in the victim's control of the encounter. In a physical, real life encounter the victim's control could be said to be very low, since the perpetrator can pursue and even detain the victim by force. More impersonal media offer greater control. A recipient of an obscene phone call can hang up and call the police if there are laws in force to punish such acts. An offensive email can be deleted and obscene overtures in MUD chat can be squelched or the user can simply shut the MUD off.

Regarding consequences for the victim it comes to a matter of impact. A physical rape leaves both material and mental damages that carry great impact and are difficult to deal with. Sexual harassment in person would seem to have a similar impact due to the fear imposed by the perpetrator's immediate presence. I think that mediated harassment however, has a lesser impact. It should be relatively easy for the victim to shrug it off and delete the offending communique, as well as pursue police action if such is warranted under law. Though again the idea of bandwidth is central. Should mediated communications become so rich that the virtual presence of a person is near indistinguishable from the actual, much more elaborate harassment laws will be required to deal with the potential threat.