The FBI joins Second Life

You're walking through the virtual world, enjoying the imgainary scent from flowers around you, when two men in all black stop you. "FBI," says one, and his avatar holds up a pixellated badge. "We'd like to ask you a few questions."

This might sound far-fetched, but apparently it's more likely than you might think. The FBI has joined in with the countless businesses and companies in entering Second Life. The hope is that by putting up virtual billboards of America's Most Wanted in Second Life, the FBI will be exposing these images to millions of players around the world. This should, in threory, leave the felons no place to hide (and give the FBI countless more false alarms).

Although this goal sounds like a good-hearted endeavor, this makes it all the more apparent that the FBI is watching our every virtual move. Of course, it makes sense that the FBI would want to be included on the virtual worlds that have been sweeping the world and which appear closer and closer to reality by the second. Knowing that the next person I chat with in an MMORPG might be one of America's black suits makes me a little nervous, and I don't even have anything to hide.

And how much jurisdiction does an American policing force have on a virtual world which exists outside the boundaries of the real world? It's only a matter of time before we see a Supreme Court case which will set the foundation for more to come. Until then, I can only hope that the noob I just owned was not actually an FBI agent in disguise.