With word reaching us that US intelligence authorities are planning to monitor residents of various persistent world MMOs in the name of national security, an expert has said that not only would such a move be unconstitutional, it would also be a waste of time.

Writing on Salon.com, Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, has poured cold water on fears that MMOs represent a terrorist threat.

"Any monitoring by law enforcement of innocuous activity and communication in a virtual world, conducted broadly and without oversight, would be unconstitutional and could invade the privacy of millions of persons," he writes.

Cole is also doubtful that MMOs could provide furtive ground for recruiting would-be terrorists, or indeed training or money-laundering activities.

"The notion that wandering around such an imaginary world with a computerised body is dangerous to anyone seems itself cartoonish and calls into question the public hand-wringing by security experts," he adds, concluding that "Even the Internet war-game sites - which include World of Warcraft - would probably just make most terrorists overweight and addicted to the Internet."

By Luke Guttridge

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