Second Life, or SL as it is known to devotees, is an online reality game. It was launched in 2003 by California-based Linden Labs but it did not come to prominence until last year, when corporations including Sony, IBM, Nissan and the ABC bought islands and began marketing to visitors.
In SL people create their own characters, known as avatars, and live an alternative life, buying goods, real estate and living in a community of more than eight million people from across the world. They go about their lives, attending concerts and seminars, building businesses and socialising.
On the darker side, there are also weapons armouries in SL where people can get access to guns, including automatic weapons and AK47s. Searches of the SL website show there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups.
"This is Tom Bopple with the news.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was unavailable for comment regarding the other threats that Second Life presented to the freedom of the United States. However, his secretary read off a statement indicating that the Secretary of Defense was aware of the threat posed by "Gargantuan Anthropomorphic Monsters" and planned to introduce a military response to counter the threat posed by them. Prominent members of the Second Life community were unavailable for comment, and key World of Warcraft guild leaders informed us that they would only respond to requests for interviews in groups of forty or more.
Godzilla had no comment."
