You’re doing it wrong: A Guide to the New Adult Ratings

I got sick of seeing lots and lots of misunderstanding when it came to the new Adult ratings, so I wrote up a little explanation and FAQ here:
http://winterseale.com/2009/09/youre-doing-it-wrong-the-adultification-of-second-life/

Help save more people the same confusion, vote for the jira ticket to remove the age-verified restriction on access, here: http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-4489

You can get a great deal more detail by visiting the wiki article: http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Information_Kit

If you see something that's wrong, or could use clarification, I'd love the feedback. Thanks!
<3 Winter

Edit 8:33 PM: Added links from original. Add question about private content on mature land. Added link to age-verification restriction removal jira.

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Even now, as the September 15th deadline for rating land as Adult in Second Life looms, people are still confused. Mostly this comes from people confusing "age-verified" with "adult-verified". This is Linden Labs fault for using confusingly similar terms. And what's worse, there are still documents hanging around(1) from the first failed attempt at requiring age-verification that talk about how you'll need it to enter Mature rated regions. Further more, documents describing restricting access to age-verified residents(2) sometimes refer to them as residents who have "verified their adult status".

(1) https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=4568

(2) https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=4799

First we'll define the terms and talk a bit about them.

Ratings(3): PG / Mature / Adult

(3) https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010

These are set region wide. It is set by going to World->Region/Estate->Region->Rating and selecting from a drop down box. You can not set these on a per parcel basis. These are intended as a tool for the general population, not land owners. They're intended to be used to insure informed consent to the sorts of activities they're likely to encounter when entering an unknown region. That is, it is intended(4) to protect RESIDENTS. They allow for a more predictable and consistent Second Life experience. While there are restrictions on who can enter an Adult region, that is not it's primary purpose.

(4) https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/03/12/upcoming-changes-for-adult-content

Adult regions can only be entered by avatars that EITHER have given payment information to LL, OR have gone successfully gone through the age verification process.

Parcel Restrictions: Age Verified / Payment Info on Record

These are set on a per-parcel OR per-estate basis by going to World->About Land->Access->Block Access By or World->Region/Estate->Estate->Restrict Access To and checking either "Residents who have not given payment info to Linden Lab" or "Residents who are not age verified adults." These are intended to allow the parcel owner to keep out people they view as undesirable. These exist to protect LAND OWNERS, not residents. There are no circumstances under which either of these ever must be set. They are entirely OPTIONAL. If you use either of these, you will be cutting off a significant percentage of the SL population.

LAND OWNER FAQ

Q. My region is rated Mature but my parcel has Adult content. Can my parcel be rated as Adult without effecting the rest of the region?
A. No. You'll either have to get the region's rated as Adult, or you'll have to move to a different region (or the new Adult mainland, Zindra). (Or of course, you can drop your Adult content.)

Q. My parcel is on a Mature island but has Adult content, but that's ok if I restrict the parcel to age-verified only right?
A. No, that's wrong. Adult content can only be on land that is rated as Adult not Mature. This means either the entire island is Adult, or you're on Zindra, the Adult mainland. Simply restricting access to your parcel does not meet the Linden Labs requirements.

Q. My region is marked as Adult, I also have to flag my parcel as age-verified if I want to allow explicit sexual activity on it, right?
A. No, you are never required to restrict your parcel to requiring either age verification or payment info. Those are entirely optional and left to your own discretion. They're intended to allow you to exclude people you view as undesirable. Remember that many people outside the US (and even inside the US) can't use the age verification services as they either don't work with international credentials or are incomplete or incorrect regarding even US credentials.

Q. My parcel sells primarily non-adult items, but does sell some adult items as well. Am I required to be in an Adult region?

A. No, you are only required to not have any Adult search terms in your parcel descriptions, or the items flagged as showing up in search (or in your classifieds). If you've received a "your land has Adult keywords" mail from LL, look for objects that are set to be indexed by the search engine. It's easy miss some of these.

Q. My home is on Mature land but I have a sex bed inside, do I have to move to Adult land?

A. No, you only have to move to Adult land if your activities are in public or are publicly promoted. What you do privately with someone (or someones) close to you is your own business (unless you make your walls transparent =p).

RESIDENT FAQ

Q. How do I become "adult verified" and gain access to regions that are rated Adult?

A. If it works for you, the easiest way is to age verify(5). However, a significant minority in the US and many many people in other countries can not use this method due to the service provider's database being incomplete or incorrect. The other option is to add payment information to your account. Please note that there is no need to actually spend any money. Either you can add a debit or credit card to your account(6). Or, if you have a VERIFIED PayPal(7) account (this means you've associated a bank account or a credit card with the paypal account), you can use that as well. For more details, go here: https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6362

(5) https://secondlife.com/my/account/verification.php
(6) https://secure-web7.secondlife.com/account/billing.php
(7) http://www.paypal.com/

Q. I've been told that if I don't become age verified that I won't be able to access Adult rated content, is that true?

A. No, you only need to have payment information on file. Some parcels do restrict access to people who aren't age verified, but this has nothing to do with the mandatory Adult rating and has nothing to do with LL's policies. This is a restriction that is entirely the doing of the land owner. The land owner may believe they had to, in which case I encourage you to point them at this FAQ.

Q. I can't age verify or put payment info on file, what about me?

A. You'll be stuck to Mature and PG regions then. This certainly isn't much of an excuse for anyone in the US, as age verification works for most people, and it's hard to imagine a Second Life user who doesn't have at least a bank account. You may not feel comfortable giving your info to PayPal or Linden Labs, but that's a "won't" not a "can't" issue. You'll have to balance your desire to have access to Adult regions against your distrust of these institutions.

Adult applies to *publicly promoted content*. If you do it in the privacy of a home and don't list in search or otherwise promote it to the general public, its OK on mature land.

If you are on PG land, no sex, at all, ever.

It would be great to include a link to this jira to get rid of age verified parcel restrictions:

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-4489

theres an aweful lot of strip clubs out there on mature land yet killing those who are on adult. thats a fact.

They're still allowed to be on mature land, the day of doom is approaching however.

I thought that as soon as Zindra opened to the public for land purchase, that was the final cutoff point for having anything 'adult' on mainland?

As such, no one should be age restricting anything on mainland.

agreed! please vote ...
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-4489

Nope, September 15th is apparently the cutoff point.

Yes, I'll update it to make that point more clearly, thank you.



Oh wow, that's a great idea... I'll definitely add that.

Thanks! <3

When did that become the cutoff point? The e-mail I got from Linden Lab gave me Sept. 1 as the cutoff point to comply.

one user agrees - thats the date i was quoted too. so what gives? cause im about to go back to a mature and reopen a few places if this keeps up.

Apparently not everyone received the emails on time. my understanding, and i could be wrong, but the way it was explained to me was Sept 15th is the date the parcel auctions start, and all private regions must be flagged by then, and all adult on mature land has to be either in the bidding for adult land or cleaned up. I'll see if we can pin a linden down on this Monday.


~Brie

This was my impression, but double checking the email we got from LL all it said was:

"In September, the Adult Content Policy transition period will end..."

This info should be stickied. In my mind, it is more important than almost anything else you could tell a new resident.

There is so much confusion over this, shown by all the various questions we see in RA --- and we know that only a very small percentage of the residents ever come to RA.

Does this pertain to private estates or just mainland?

That's a good one. Voted... Thanks, spinster!

Both - it applies to all of SL. A private estate still has to follow the Adult rules --- flag the estate as Adult and have advertised/promoted adult content or stay non-Adult and have no adult content or only content in private that is not advertised in any way.

Voted!

yap i heard middle of this month myself..

Also i didn't think all strip clubs fell under adult..i thought it was how they advertised and what they advertised..That and how they conducted themselves..
Bleh i guess we will see soon enough what the heck they are allowing and what not..

I'll just be glad when we are past this whole thing and the huckle buck shuffle is over..

That was also my understanding, but we also know that LL contradicted themselves on many of the specifics.......

So yeah, we'll just have to wait and see.

I haven't seen a date on any of the emails I've received, but I haven't received one since August 25th.

Ari however claims it says September 15th on his:

http://commonsensible.net/2009/09/04/the-end-is-nigh-september-15th-to-be-exact/

I heard there is going to be a blog on the date that it goes active..if they were gonna blog it and the date is the 15..we should be getting a blog around 11:59pm on the 14th hahahaha