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Do virtual worlds threaten online safety?

The boundaries between the real world and online virtual communitiesis becoming ever-more blurred. And as a result, people are nowseriously at risk from falling victim to deviant and even criminalbehaviour in online communities like Second Life.

That'saccording to highly-regarded criminologist, Dr Matthew Williams fromCardiff University, who says a watershed in the development of onlinevirtual words has been reached. This has made virtual worlds a veryripe target for fraudsters, sexual perverts and social deviants, hesays.

"Ever since Active Worlds was created back in themid-nineties, people have been victimised by deviant behaviour.It's because many people see online worlds as not being real, sothey are less inhibited in the way they act towards other people.

"Andwhile some people are causing trouble in places like Active Worlds andSecond Life, there are even more people who are leaving themselves wideopen to attack," he says.

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Inan interview with TechRadar, Dr Williams said that many people openthemselves up to being attacked because they don't perceivevirtual words as being 'real'. And as these worlds becomemore graphically realistic, they attract more people, leaving even moreat risk.

"The threats vary. It might simply be someonebeing sworn at by a nasty person who doesn't mind insulting orupsetting people. But there are also cases of accounts being hacked,and property and currency being stolen. There is also the very realdanger of children being groomed by paedophiles, especially if peopleare tempted to meet their virtual friends in real life."

The problem here is that the harassment and stalking that can take place online, can manifest itself offline.

DrWilliams cited a case where a woman was persuaded to meet a manshe'd met in the Active Worlds community. After meeting him, shewas never heard from again. And when police raided the man's house,they found she'd been murdered, along with several other women,and stuffed in barrels in the man's garage.

"That'sa very extreme example, of course. But it does demonstrate the dangers.People need to be aware that they don't really know whothey're talking to."

Police interest in virtual worlds

Britishpolice recently took an interest in Second Life, due to concerns thatits thriving virtual economy - which has a real currency -has the potential to attract criminal activity.

"We'vereached a watershed in the development of these words. They'remore realistic than ever now. And the most interesting thing is thatreal-world police are now taking an active interest. In years gone by,police forces just have not had the man power nor the expertise to keepan eye on virtual online worlds. But that might now be changing,"Dr Williams said.

One of the biggest risks, says Dr Williams, isthat ultimately these virtual words are just pieces of software. And assuch, there might be loopholes that could be exposed by hackers, whichcould lead to user accounts being compromised.

"We saw itwith Active Worlds, where some people found a way to get access toother users' accounts without even having to use Trojans andkeyloggers. And even though security is very tight, that onlyrepresents a bigger challenge for skilled hackers," he said.