Age verification enters Grid-wide beta

This may be a dumb question but why are people trying to verify their identities? I can't see that it serves any useful purpose to us customers at all.

I verified just because I felt like I don't want to go through the hassle of not getting into someplace because of the owner checking the wrong box or something... but I did find something odd

I have a friend who is in SL and is 17 (No name as that would be stupid =P) who was also able to verify witht heir SSN. No problem at all .

Thats just stupid. Maybe it's cause his birthday is in a couple months?

No I hear that 12 year olds are getting verified as adults. So much for the Great Second Life New Society.

I figure it is safer to hang around with non-verified people who are Payment Verified. At least I can assume they are adults unlike the "age verified" ones.

thats a good point. Most kids can just get ahold of their parents passport or other ID easy. GOOD POINT!

That appears to be a legitimate reason Okiphia but if everyone refused to take part in this ridiculous scheme then it becomes a moot point.

lol my family has info on a piece of paper on a corkboard...

DL #, full SSN, DOB, birthplace (Hospital name and address)

so.. it would be easy lol

Why on earth (or the grid) would they have all that on display?

rofl for easy use when calling various things.. hospitals credit cards, DMV, various things lol...

I know not safe but oh well.. we lock the office and live far away from anyone XD

Sindy in real life we trust our family members with that kind of information in case of an emergency etc etc. I, for one, don't trust Second Life, or their age verification company, with that kind of information.

Personally, I don't think it will do anything as far as keeping kids out that really want to be here.

That said, I did verify because I want to be able to go anywhere that I might want to go in SL. I monitor my own credit reports and financial accounts very well and therefore I'm not too worried about any identity theft issues. I want my SL freedom.

LL does not care if IDV actually keeps kids off the main grid or even away from very adult material.

If your kid steals your info and accesses a bdsm club in SL, thats now on you, or you could try to put it on the club owner, but not LL, and that's the bottom line.

They also don't really care if you verify. Why should they? You don't have to be verified to go to Coffee Mate's new island, so their main target audience, ie: businesses seeking consumers, won't generally be effected by IDV at all. In fact, businesses will love IDV. Maybe I'll start getting coupons for Coffee Mate in the mail.

I verified coz, let's face it, I'm a pervert. I got it on the first try. Which undoubtedly means whoever is farming the info I provided already had it on file or accessible somewhere. Whatever.

I am completely unsurprised that the system implemented is buggy and unreliable, coz I've been in SL a month shy of 4 years now. The longer you've been here, the less you will be too.

QFT on all levels, and cos it makes me happy to see people proud of their perversions

I pity anyone who tries to steal my identity. They'll have a lot of bills to pay when they successfully screw up my address details and make people think I live in Scotland or something. Other than that, they haven't got a cat in hell's chance of getting credit, I could not be less worried in many ways.

Well they have really thought of everything, what happens when i click On Australia , well there are all the US states still there oh no where that i can click as being where i live and its a mandatory question, what a bunch of knuckles these lindens are.

So i wonder if i can put my Aus drivers licence in and even if i can i dont live in a us state so im screwed anyway, will it accept it ?? Geez i better look for a non mature sim to live at, if i cant get to the place of residence cos of the age verification will they compensate me for loosing that piece of property ?? ??

They deserve a round of applause, spend so much time and money on tarting up the sky etc , and leave the rest to chance.

I don't see why you seem to think this is specific to SL. Come work in an online industry which requires that people have to be 18 to access your services or else you will lose your licence. You'll see lots of kids successfully circumvent a system which does EVERYTHING possible to prevent that, and see how people complain when they get asked to provide proof of age and address.

This includes, naturally, that parents are not very savvy whereas their kids are. Those "verified by payment type" people COULD just as easily be underage. Personally, I only hang out with people who are able to talk at my level of life experience and who understand what I am talking about ... funnily enough, this always puts them between 35-45.

That having been said, the UK does have very solid Data Protection laws which I am lead to believe are absent in the US. Have you started a campaign to lobby Congress to protect your Consumer Rights?

Barking up the wrong tree complaining against LL. That's no apology for them, Aristotle are probably not really that much worse than using someone like Experian or Equifax or any of the growing ranks of Credit Reference agencies. And no, before someone asks, verifying your ID will NOT affect your credit rating, there are levels of checks and something like this is not classed as a black mark against your credit rating.

Huh? Where did I say this was specific to SL?

Just your post in general Susie, which I can't see easily to quote in this quick trip to Forumland before work ... your mentioning of new Second Citizenship if memory serves correctly. And, tbh, your take on things as it appears from your posts. It's EVERYWHERE and unfortunately this means they'll have to cover their asses in whatever way needed. I doubt they want all this faff either.

***edit***

"So much for the Great Second Life New Society." - memory clearly failed me this time.

Hi, is there a sim, parcel, store...place where the age verified restriction is currently enabled? I would like to see what it looks like. Is it just a ban line? Are there any cues that you are being restricted because you are not veriifed? Also, how does that work with islands? If an entire island is restricted how will I know that is the reason and not that TPs are borked.

edit:

Hmmm theres a whole thread on my question but no particular place has been mentioned yet.

it's been suggested that the flags are there, but they are not enabled yet... meaning you can set it, but right now it doesn't do anything... feel free to play with the switch but the power is off

What I want to know is if having some poseballs/having possible avatar nudity is enough to need verification in the first place. Especially if the poseballs concerned are locked to group only.

The age verification system is not going to be perfect. Covering so many different countries and the local laws regulating things, it likely going to be impossible. Also, no system can be 100% impossible to prevent false/stolen info from getting used. But LL is going to need to do the best they can at it.

If you’re in a location that has its laws so tight that LL can't verify you, you’re stuck and might find yourself on the outs. That’s not LL's fault, but the laws of your locations fault. Those same locations likely will be the first one in line to go after LL or another SL player saying why you let an underage have access what they should not have access to. Will some underage find their way around any system, yep, but it’s hard to hold others responsible for a child going around the security in place to protect them. It still comes down to who wants to take what risk. Do you risk having Adult content you might be held responsible for? LL is dealing with this now, but any on line community is going to face the same issues and have to take steps to keep everyone safe.

Your world, Your Imagination, Your legal liability.......

I think that like the gambling ban, we'll need to wait until it goes live and the ARs and sanctions start happening to get a feel of what will and will not be "adult".

QFT

Sorry, but it is LL's fault for falling for Aristotle's marketing presentation and leaping to sign on the dotted line.

I can go to city hall and request a copy of my birth certificate and get that certified for international use, scan it and send it off to LL.

They've been billing me for 18 months now, they *know* who I am in RL, the only thing they're not sure of is whether I'm actually an adult, but my birth certificate and a little primary school math is all that's needed and most importantly, no information that people would consider to be "confidential" is revealed.

But of course LL is intent on keeping the payment unverified hordes around so the method above would fail since LL doesn't know a thing about their RL identity.