Patent ID: 8713450

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing, on a computer readable storage medium, a plurality of definitions of inappropriate interactions between users of a virtual environment, the inappropriate interactions being defined on a basis of leading to potential harm to users of the virtual environment; receiving one or more indications of an interaction between a first user and a second user of the virtual environment, and upon determining that the one or more indications correspond to at least one of the plurality of definitions of inappropriate interactions: adding, to a plurality of records of previous inappropriate interactions, a record of the inappropriate interaction; identifying from the plurality of records a pattern of inappropriate interactions for the second user, wherein at least one of the inappropriate interactions in the identified pattern is one of the plurality of previous inappropriate interactions; identifying one or more potential victims of the second user from among the users of the virtual environment using a victim profile developed from the identified pattern of inappropriate interactions, the victim profile describing common characteristics of potential victims of abuse from the second user; and performing one or more actions to prevent abuse by the second user to the one or more potential victims that match the victim profile in the virtual environment.