U.S. Congress Holds Hearing on Second Life

An informational meeting allowed members of a House subcommittee to size up the need the for potential legislation of the virtual world.

Second Life may appear to be a bumble of awkwardly animated characters stuttering around in a virtual world of their own creation, but the United States Congress wants to know what’s really going on behind the scenes. In a House subcommittee hearing held on Tuesday, members drilled Second Life founder Philip Rosedale on the game’s capacity for crime.

According to the Los Angeles Times, members of the subcommittee asked about everything from the possibility of the game being used for money laundering, to using it as a vehicle for recruiting terrorists. Rosedale denied that Linden Labs, the company that runs the game, had ever witnessed such things occurring in the game. He also cited some of the company’s self-imposed legislative measures, such as keeping out teenagers and barring gambling, as ways the community has been able to police itself.

In a bizarre twist, the meeting was also broadcast live into a virtual hearing room in Second Life, where virtual avatars gathered to watch, and the House subcommittee was given a window into the Second Life meeting room with a projector.

Although the potential need for legislation remained the underlying question behind the meeting, it was strictly informational for subcommittee members, and no laws were passed.