The upset parent issue is probably the least of your worries here, actually. I can't remember ever receiving an email from an angry parent who had a child upset that their character had suffered a violent death or a maiming injury - nor have I received any emails from parents upset about virtual sex.
The problems are almost always going to involve: The virtual rapist, the victim, and the victim's circle of online friends. Overrule the incident when it's IC for the virtual rapist and you might get criticized as a prude. Allow it to stand, and you run the risk of angering the victim and their friends.
This actually happened on OtherSpace a year or so ago. The staff was involved in the decision to allow the incident to take place, the actual rape happened "offscreen," being suggested rather than spelled out in detail, and it was within the parameters of the demented character who committed the crime - on a planet where violence of all kinds is pretty commonplace, with no real law enforcement to do anything about it.
We upset some people, no doubt about it. It's a harrowing experience, and it absolutely should raise concerns and be handled with the greatest of care. But this sort of thing *can* be seen as a consequence of a player's actions - not that they're asking for it, by any means, but if you get involved in activities with a character that has such proclivities, you *do* run certain risks.
As an administrator, to prevent this sort of thing, you can simply ban sexual activity of all kinds outright. I did that for the first few years of OtherSpace. Utter folly. You're still going to have people hiding in their IC rooms, having consensual keyboard sex. If you're going to ban sex, you might as well ban violence too, and declare your MUD as Rated G - but people are still going to have sex. You can't stop them.
The best thing to do is develop a policy for handling this sort of thing, make sure the staff is involved, and write a disclaimer for your players that the management of the game shouldn't be held responsible for the bad things other players might do to them - and spell out that it's possible that bad things really can happen, from vicious beatings to stabbings to muggings to rapes (although you should have a clause saying it is recommended that actual acts of such violence should take place offscreen).
Bottom line: As with any highly charged emotional issue mixed with people who can be extremely sensitive - sometimes hypersensitive - think carefully and involve staff if it comes up. Even the virtual rapist needs to consider the OOC consequences of their actions, and how they might be harassed for their behavior - even if it's totally in-character.
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