We often discuss the financial impact of broadening virtual world adoption, as we look at businesses employing the technology for collaborative work environments, or the ways in which free-to-play online social gaming is evolving the landscape of play. But there are social ramifications too that, while not necessarily huge to the biz-savvy, beg interesting discussions about the rapid strides made in person-to-person communication online.

An example of this is a recent advice column in Kansas' Wichita Eagle, which cites an expert consensus that online infidelity can lead to real infidelity. The issues of Second Life romances or teen Habbo hookups have been discussed at the fringes of our culture, but as broader audiences gain access and mastery of virtual worlds and online interaction, it's possible that such discussion topics will feature front-and-center in the social lexicon of the 21st century.

The column's author, Jessica Yadegaran, visits the online support community EverQuest Widows -- somewhat ironically, an online social community to unite women who've been jilted by their husbands for online avatars of other women, or simply by a spouse's excess of time investment in an online world. The article takes a wide lens to consider the effects of the issue:

Legally, cyber affairs don't, by themselves, constitute adultery. However, if cyber-cheating leads to a real-life affair, then the actual adultery can be grounds for divorce in jurisdictions that consider fault.

Furthermore, if cyber-cheating is egregious and leads to a regular pattern of cruelty in the marriage, or causes the cyber-cheater to abandon completely his marital responsibilities, it could be considered grounds for divorce in fault and mixed-fault divorce regimes, says Melissa Murray, a family law professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law.

"In the future, family law and other aspects of the law will have to wrestle with the question of how to deal with conduct in these virtual spaces," Murray says.

According to the article, lecturer Lisa Rein feels that these kinds of destructive online interactions are only a small part of the picture -- that instead, relationships in worlds like Second Life represent a natural evolution in humans relating online. But clinical psychologist Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Online Addiction Recovery in Pennsylvania, estimates that 60 percent of her private practice clients deal with online affairs.

The column even offers tips for what to look for in a spouse who may be cheating emotionally with another avatar: Demand for privacy, evidence of lying and decreased interest in the relationship, to name a few.

[Via Kansas.com]