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Crime rife in virtual Second Life?
By Stevie Smith
Jun 4, 2007, 15:04 GMT

Second Life is a welcoming online avatar haven where real people can transform themselves into virtual representations and mingle socially with others from all across the globe. Second Life is a hub of lifestyle, entertainment, and opportunity, where virtual land can be bought before virtual construction can lead to a virtual business that trades in virtual (but redeemable) money. Second Life is a creation only limited by the imagination of its inhabitants, and we all know just how twisted that imagination can become when allowed to run unchecked.

Indeed, while Second Life may have started as a utopian world where gamers, geeks, and technophiles could gather and immerse themselves into the pure and innocent escapism of a genuine second life, the rocketing popularity of Linden Lab’s online world has now begun attracting the attentions of those intent on destruction, and even violence, reports the Concorde Monitor.

While anti-capitalist and pro-democracy movements continue to virtually ‘bomb’ real-world business locations in Second Life (last week saw the Australian broadcaster ABC have its luxury island turned into a crater by angry hackers), worrying reports of rape and child abuse have started to gather around the supposedly idyllic and rather laidback bohemian existence to be ‘enjoyed’ in Second Life.

More pointedly, the aforementioned rape incident, which took place earlier in 2007, caused outrage when with one virtual avatar sexually assaulted by another. The problem with interpretation arises when understanding that although some commentators on the attack shrugged it off as digital fiction, the police in Belgium opened an investigation into, not who perpetrated said rape, but whether an actual crime had been committed.

In the month just gone, German authorities have also homed in on an incident of sexual abuse involving live images of a child avatar having simulated sex with an adult avatar. Again the line between twisted fiction and actual crime is horribly blurred at this point, with such virtual acts considered not to be illegal in the United States, home of San Francisco-based Linden Lab, but certainly against pornography laws in Germany. All of this, of course, promotes the question of whether a virtual world such as Second Life should be governed by a virtual police force.

Also, Second Life is not alone in seeing virtual crime sully its reputation, with the likes of the hugely popular World of Warcraft MMORPG (a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with more than 8 million users) and Lineage II both seeing instances of virtual gangs killing off lone in-game players and stealing their wares, which are later sold on for real-world profit. Furthermore, such activity has also spilled over into real-world events, with a Shanghai-based 41-year-old Legend of Mir 3 online gamer stabbing a another cheating player repeatedly in the chest after he stole an in-game weapon reportedly worth some $850 USD – a crime the police had initially refused to investigate because the stolen sword was considered to be ‘virtual property.’

While actual embassies are sprouting up in Second Life, with the Maldives and Sweden existing as the first countries to open their virtual doors, and renowned car, computer, and broadcast businesses are trading within its sprawling borders, there is an unchecked tasteless adult-only element threatening to spoil the vision that Second Life could (still) represent. And surely now is the time for Linden Lab to step in as creator and apply some form of assured restriction to limit certain types of content appearing on its shores.

Case in point, the Concorde Monitor report highlights that some 15 percent of Second Life’s virtual property has been ‘voluntarily’ flagged by users as containing potentially mature material. However, some of these in-world destinations see avatars embroiled in drug use, rape, child sex, and other unsavoury acts. While some will argue that in-world events are not real, they’re bracketed and labelled by way of warning, and therefore have zero bearing on real-world responsibilities and/or governance, a work of narrative-free book-bound fiction depicting nothing but acts of wanton child abuse and sexual attacks would not last long on Borders’ shelves.

Sadly, however, the governmental disagreements as to what is and what is not a punishable crime looks set to rage on, and the fact that Linden Lab is adopting a stance of non-committal regarding the ‘hoped for’ evolution of a virtual legal code amongst its citizens only showcases the growing monetary value and influence of Second Life and what such a just clampdown would do to its profit potential.

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