In Active Worlds 3.3 you can enter AFK or "Away From Keyboard" mode to let the other people on your contact list (those to whom you have exposed your online/offline status) know that you are currently running AW but have stepped away from the computer or are otherwise unable to respond to telegrams at the moment.

To enter AFK mode simply press the red "AFK" mode in the toolbar. To leave AFK mode, press it again.

To avoid the problem where you might forget to leave AFK mode when you return to your PC, you can enable the "automatically leave AFK mode on keyboard activity" option under the privacy settings. With this option enabled, your browser will automatically leave AFK mode as soon as you start typing on the keyboard while Active Worlds is the foreground application.