Could someone please bring me up to date with this Adult Content thing?

Adult-oriented content controls FAQ

Why is Linden Lab choosing to do this now?
While Second Life® (as opposed to Teen Second Life) is fundamentally directed to an "over-18" audience, some content is clearly more conventionally "adult" than other content.

As our community continues to grow and the range of uses for Second Life continues to expand, we're committed to preserving the openness that is a cornerstone of the experience. At the same time, we need to ensure that all Residents can engage in our virtual world in a manner suitable to their needs.

To this end, we will begin to implement certain access controls designed to better serve certain constituencies -- specifically, educators and professionals, as well as the creators and users of adult content. Our goal is to make Second Life more enjoyable for all Residents by giving them greater control over their inworld experiences.

Our community is growing, and the range of uses for Second Life is continually expanding. Numerous Residents, f r o m adult content vendors to educators, have requested additional controls to provide a more predictable Second Life experience.
What are the short- and long-term plans?
The short-term plan for this project is to separate (geographically, and in search) content designated Adult f r o m other kinds of content on the mainland, as well as filter adult search results and require that Regions be designated according to their content and activities; this way, we can provide an additional layer of assurance for our Residents that adult content will be for adults only.

The first step is discussing the components, processes, and effects of this initiative further with the Residents of Second Life. After about a month of discussion, we'll be ready to lay out the specifics of the plan and begin moving ahead with this initiative.

Ultimately, the long-term plan is to create the infrastructure necessary to support and enable the widest range of use cases for Second Life.
Is this something that Second Life users have asked for?
Yes. Numerous Residents, ranging f r o m adult-content vendors to educators, have requested that we provide additional tools to enable them to tailor their inworld experiences and make them more predictable.
How does this move prevent minors f r o m entering Second Life or accessing content?
As part of this initiative, we will require Residents who access adult content (or view Adult search results) to go through an account verification process -- either being verified through our age verification provider, or have a verified payment method. While no such system is truly infallible, we believe these steps will make our platform safer, and will give providers of adult content an additional layer of assurance that only verified adults will be able to access their content.
Will this initiative affect Teen Second Life?
There are no immediate plans to change Teen Second Life.
Will this initiative prohibit certain kinds of content in Second Life?
No. It will not affect the kinds of content that are permitted in Second Life, just how they can be accessed, and by whom.
Has Linden Lab consulted third parties as part of this initiative?
We've conducted extensive research on industry standards and are working with experts who have extensive experience creating content-access policies for large Internet services.
Doesn't this move go against the free spirit of Second Life and the internet?
No. f r o m its inception, Second Life has been an open place, where Residents are free to explore a wide diversity of creative pursuits. This openness has fostered a tremendous amount of amazing content inworld and helped make Second Life what it is today. We are committed to preserving that openness while at the same time, ensuring that Residents can engage in Second Life in the manner most suited to their needs and interests.

By enabling a Resident to exercise greater control over their experience, we believe Second Life will remain as open an environment as it ever was, albeit with the enhanced ability to tailor the experience in such a way as to allow Residents to exercise discretion with certain content when it is appropriate to do so.
Is Linden Lab trying to deemphasize the community so it can focus more on the enterprise market?
Not at all. There are many communities in Second Life -- f r o m educators, artists, entrepreneurs, gamers, enterprise users, and many more, including those interested in adult content -- and there's room for all of them in Second Life, just as there is on the Internet at large and in the real world.

This initiative is about enhancing Second Life for all Residents by giving them greater control over their experiences. Many may c h o o s e to keep their experience much as it is today, while others may prefer to exercise the new controls to further tailor their Second Life experience.
If I have already been age verified, or have a payment method on file, will this carry over for the new initiative?
Yes.
Will this bring any benefits for vendors in Second Life?
Vendors in Second Life already enjoy the benefits of a full-service virtual environment with a large and growing audience of consumers and a strong inworld economy. With these policy changes and search controls, they'll be able to more easily target the customers they intend to reach, and will enjoy the density of a focused market (both in search, and geographically). For adult content vendors, this initiative will also provide an additional layer of assurance that only verified adults can access their material.
How will this program help attract new users?
It will make Second Life more attractive to new users by making it more customizable and easier to search for relevant content, whether adult or non-adult.
How will these changes affect XstreetSL?
XstreetSL already separates Adult content, so we expect no changes at this time.
Will landmarks u p d a t e automatically? Is that something Residents need to do manually?
Landmarks can not be u p d a t ed automatically. However, for Residents who have moved f r o m the Mainland to the Adult continent during the two-week priority move, we will leave their old parcel untenanted for at least 30 days, and they may leave a landmark giver to their new location.
Can Residents move between the mainland and the AO continent if they have "Adult" items in their inventories?
Yes.
How will having a completely new continent impact overall performance? Should Residents expect a higher crash rate while Linden Lab works to launch and support the continent?
The new continent has already been created, and its existence should not impact performance.
If someone clicks on a SLURL that leads to "Adult" content but they don’t have the right s e ttings, where will they go? Will people be able to teleport directly to the AO continent via a SLURL?
It behaves like any other attempt to teleport to regions you can’t access: you remain in the same place and are shown a message about how to access Adult regions.
If a region is flagged "Adult," but the Resident believes it to be M or PG, how do they / can they protest their rating? What's the process for doing so?
Private Regions' owners will be responsible for s e tting the maturity of the Regions they own. Mainland Regions will only be s e t to Adult by Linden Lab if they are part of the Adult Continent. Renters on a Region that has been s e t to Adult will need to either contact their landlord about why the Region has been s e t that way, or will need to move to a Region matching the maturity of their content.

If a Resident feels their classified, event, or other content has been flagged as Adult incorrectly, there will be ways to request a review. Content is flagged as Adult in two ways:

1. Use of adult keywords in names and descriptions
2. Location on an Adult region


As always, Abuse Reports can be used to report content that is not appropriate for the maturity rating. In addition, we have a PJIRA issue where people may comment if they believe their content has been incorrectly rated due to adult keywords: SVC-4149

<snip>I don't think ANYONE except the Lindens really knows exactly what's going to happen. <snip>

I think Argent is putting them into a Wiki somewhere.

But in general, they are putting their hands over their ears and stomping through a minefield.

The Lindens, I mean. Not Lord or Marianne. Lord might, he seems like a wild and crazy guy, but a minefield is no place for a child.

This blog post might be worth reading: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/04/21/update--upcoming-changes-for-adult-content

QFT. The KB articles linked in that updated blog post are if anything *more* restrictive than what they replace--that is, the definition of "Adult" seems to have broadened considerably. That means that many of the answers in the Forums threads are apparently "no longer operative."

It makes for interesting reading, those new KB FAQs alongside the earlier Forums answers (linked to in the aforementioned Wiki page that Argent created).

I'm going to become a born again Christian, there's going to be more Adult Content in the bible then in SL now.

Lot's.

For your reading enjoyment:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/04/unsexed.html

I'm not sure why people are so for or so against this.... what does it really change? You can do all the same things you do now, but it will be in a specific area. That is my understanding of it anyway.

Now... This has some pro's. Even people who like adult content don't necesarily want to be surrounded by it all the time.... it will be nice to be able to search for shops selling say... wedding gifts... and not take a tp to a store claiming to have them, only to find it's a sex pose shop isntead. Or when you're showing SL to friends and family, to not suddenly find yourself showing them naked people having public sex. lol.

The reason I don't like this move, is that most people like adult content to various degrees... it's not all or nothing. By moving all the adult content to one area, means that you are now taking everything that is currently dispersed over all of the SL universe (metaverse? whatever) and concentrating it in one location. So people who like to have a little fun are now going to be forced to go in way over their head.... and be completely submerged in stuff that they may not be interested in. They are taking the ultimate in "gray" area and making it black and white and I think that is a huge mistake.

What other issues am I missing on this topic?

I'm not sure why people are so for or so against this.... what does it really change? You can do all the same things you do now, but it will be in a specific area. That is my understanding of it anyway.

So will we see them backtrack on Verification? Will they decide PIOF isn't enough and require everyone use the broken Aristotle Data Mining scheme.

I'm both age verified and have payment information on file. Which I mention because I was on grid-wide treasure hunt. One of the locations brought me to a sandbox right next to a neat nature area. I wandered over and tried to stop myself when I saw the red ban lines. But my ao carried me into them. Instead of bouncing off I got a pop-up telling me I needed to be age verified to enter. Which I am. So I tried again. And bounced off again (with that pop-up appearing again).

So . . . age verified is still messed up, it appears.

So what actually counts as age verified...

Ive paid lindens through both my credit card and my pay pal account AND I'm English by jove....

what more do they need ?

Tissue samples ?

So . . . age verified is still messed up, it appears.