Alleged illegal plans in virtual world

It’s probably a one-in-a-million case, but it does represent a risk to youth in virtual worlds and other online game settings where people of all ages play. A 31-year-old Australian woman faces child abduction charges in North Carolina “after trying to bring her 17-year-old World of Warcraft boyfriend back to Oz,” TheRegister.com reports. She was arrested as she stepped off a train in Rocky Mount, N.C. She “allegedly had an online relationship with the boy for more than a year, which began in the online game World of Warcraft,” and had since “exchanged copious amounts of email and even discussed marriage.” She’s being detained pending a July 11 court date and could face two years in American jail. Online games and social networking on cellphones are the next frontiers for child online safety. Meanwhile, another virtual world, Second Life, is now seeing the first case of an avatar suing another avatar for real money. A Second Life entrepreneur “has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Second Life resident” for copying the former’s virtual product and selling it for a third of the price, the San Jose Mercury News reports.