The line between real and virtual worlds has become more confused than ever. Two weeks ago, a woman was arrested after "killing" her virtual husband who had divorced her in an online game called "Maple Story." She was arrested not on charges of murder, but on charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data. She was taken to face real charges in Sapporo, where the real man whose "avatar," or online persona, was "killed" really lives.

If all this is a bit confusing, it does not get much clearer by considering that after his virtual online "murder," the man actually called the police. Stranger things have happened, but with the continued proliferation of online communities, adventure games and fantasy lives, stranger things are ever more likely. The ever-larger numbers of people in the virtual world need a reality check to remind themselves exactly what real consequences exist.

After Americans and Brazilians, Japanese spend the third largest amount of their real lives in these interactive online worlds. In many countries, from the United States to the Netherlands, abductions, theft and other crimes have started in virtual worlds and then entered the real one. Last summer a 16-year-old boy was arrested in Tokyo on charges of swindling virtual currency with a stolen ID and password. Clearly the same human weaknesses people have in the real world show up online.