Updated 6:28 p.m.

Is your Xbox illegal under the Geneva Convention? Could you be hauled before the International Criminal Court for playing shooter games like Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty?

Absolutely not, says a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. “War crimes are serious violations of the laws of war committed in real life situations, not on virtual battlefields,” the ICRC’s Bijan Frederic Farnoudi tells Danger Room.

But Farnoudi’s colleagues aren’t quite so sure. They believe that virtual worlds and real war crimes could conceivably be linked — especially if an army uses...