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Real trouble in virtual worlds

Posted on 11 Mar 2008 at 16:43

Can "crimes" committed online, such as theft or murder, get you in trouble with the police? Davey Winder investigates.

Like millions of others, I spent much of 2007 within the virtual worlds of Second Life, There.com and World of Warcraft. For most, time spent in these online arenas is pure escapism; for others these fantasy worlds are serious business: avatars are more than cartoons, they're entrepreneurs and celebrities within their worlds. Real-world issues such as crime, taxation, copyright, property law and sexual abuse have all become hot issues.

There's a growing body of evidence to suggest that the real-world consequences of our behaviour within virtual worlds is starting to bite. My involvement in these environments was part pleasure, part professional research, and I was exposed to some of the unexpected risks you face while indulging in what you might think is harmless identity play. The virtual universe is a great playground and a fertile place to do business, but you need to know your virtual rights to survive the legal pitfalls that litter this still-evolving environment.

The virtual blue line

Towards the end of last year, internet identity specialist Garlik called on some of the leading criminologists in the UK to paint a picture of the online crime landscape. The resulting report concluded that 3.2 million cybercrimes were committed in a single year in the UK alone. While the report also revealed that 92,000 of these crimes related to identity theft, it admitted the actual figure could be much greater, as it's generally accepted that 90% of cybercrimes go unreported. People are often unsure if an online crime has actually broken the law and are equally uncertain if the police would be able (or even willing) to act.

The boundaries become even more blurred when you move criminality into the strictly virtual world. Can you be prosecuted for acts of vandalism to property that exists only within a fantasy world contained on a server? What about "pretend" paedophilia, where adults indulging in "ageplay" act out sexual encounters between adult and child avatars? Moral boundaries will have been crossed, but what of the legal ones? Can an avatar rape or murder another avatar in any real sense, and are there real-world legal consequences? Or is the only recourse available that which is decided by the Game Gods, the developers, creators and owners of these online worlds?

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft (WoW) are built around the notion of fighting and trading your way within a virtual world. With more than eight million players, WoW is the most popular online game of its ilk, merging traditional online gameplay with ongoing social interaction within an immersive 3D environment. The ability to explore this vista is one of the many attractions, yet there are parts of the map that are regarded as off-limits to all but the most foolhardy or ignorant. In these wastelands, highly organised murder gangs exist purely to ambush and "kill" those who stumble within, looting their characters of virtual belongings, which can be traded for in-game gold. This gold can later be traded on black-market exchanges for money, yet no real-world crime has been committed. Chinese online role player, Qiu Chengwei, discovered the police can't investigate the virtual theft of an object that doesn't exist outside a computer game when his sword worth 7,200 Yuan (around £500) was stolen. He took the law into his own hands by tracking down the thief and killing him in real life.

Virtual sex crime