Paranoia over pedophillia

Folks,

This is an amusing story (or not), depending on how you look at it.

I recently bought some land in SL after being a part of the community for three years. It has substantially improved my SL experience and it felt good to finally have a SL home after all these years. Initially I couldn't see the point of all that expense, but I now realize that having a home means that you can create your own environment, limited by only your imagination, your building and scripting skills or the depth of your pocket, and SL's technology.

However, after a while my place seemed incomplete without another sentient being besides myself there. The first solution was a little robot that wanders around. It added something to the place I thought but soon became like the rest of the furniture, except that it moves.

So I came across the story of a child bot adoption agency. I visited yesterday and it turned out to be pretty expensive. Not only do you have to pay an upfront purchase fee, but you also have to pay a monthly maintenance fee (to keep it running on a server like your land I was told). After paying the purchase price and the four weeks fees, I had to fill out a form and submit it. Then to my surprise, I was told that I had to do an interview.

During this interview, I explained to the interviewer two reasons for wanting to adopt this bot which was in the form of a little girl. I explained that I had a bot at my place that wasn't very interactive and thought it would be fun to have a child bot that could interact with me. I also explained that my partner and I in RL were thinking about having a child, and this SL experience might be a fun and humorous way to experience the process of dealing with a child.

During the interview it was made clear that the child bot could not be used for any adult situation (which was a reference to sexual activity). I was offended and again explained my reason for wanting this bot. You might ask, why a little girl? Why not a boy? I found the girl bot was more interesting in appearance and also in RL I do hope to have a daughter. Not that I have anything against having a son. But what does it matter? One can equally misuse a male child bot.

She asked me three times about not using the bot for adult situations, and each time I explained, while becoming more and more offended, that was certainly not my intention, until finally I told the interviewer that I was no pervert.

At this point, the interviewer told me that she felt that I would not be a suitable candidate and refunded my money.

This whole incident is laughable. Firstly, if these things are really bots their interactive ability must be very limited. In fact, they would be little better than the moving bot I currently have, except for the fact that they look human. I am very familiar with the latest development in AI and machines are nowhere close to interacting humanly with another human. I have access to an AI being developed by the brightest mind, and within a minute of conversation you can tell that this is a machine.

The interviewer treated me like a pedophile over a computer generated image and basic AI program, after I had explained to her my valid reasons for wanting to place this thing in my home to replace a non-interactive bot.

Is this what SL has come to? Paranoia over pedophillia.

I can understand the creator, after seeing the report the Herald did about the KidsBots. Personally, as a kid/teen avatar myself, I don't like this product because I can see Fox News and other "journalists" of this type having a field day when such a bot is used for a TOS violating action - it would all go against the perverted kid avatars again.

Quite a few from the kid avatar community had/have this fear, so the creator of the Kidsbots, who was nice enough to come to the Milk N Kookies Radio Show for an interview and for answering questions about the product, really tightened the process of getting such a bot.

Yes.

And paranoia over sex in general, paranoia over perceptions, paranoia over ...fill-in-the-blank...

Welcome to Virtual 1984.

Basically the entire world is paranoid. Sl seems to take it to the extreme though. There must be other agency's that offer the same product but with less interrogation.

Why not offer a kid av a title to join you're family? Don't close off you're options.because of one paranoid schizo.

Paranoia is the order of the day.

I usually avoid the pedophile threads but this one floored me. It's kind of humorous actually. I'm mildly amused by people who get all in an uproar over pixelated sex and what that all means. Now we're onto programed pixalated sex without two humans even behind the pixels.

You have so much more control than I do. That interviewer was just asking for a big mind f**k from a lesser creature such as myself. I would have loved to play with that bot.

I'm reminded of all those forum threads that open with "Why do I always get banned because of my short avatar!?"... To which all I can respond with is 'my avatar is shorter than yours, and I don't get banned.' (=_=)

It's all a matter of approach. When someone asks a question, don't respond with suspicion. (=_=)

Good:
"Is your avatar over 18?" - "Why yes, it is."

Bad:
"Is your avatar over 18?" - "What's wrong with you? Why are you accusing me of being a kid?!"

Good:
"Will you use your kidbot for sex?" - "No."

Bad:
"Will you use your kidbot for sex?" - "Why do you ask a question like that? I'll tell YOU what I'll do with it!"

Sure... I'm not the most tactful person on the grid (Epic understatement alert)... But, I've found myself on very very few banlists simply out of civility. (^_^)y

Yes, people in SL really ARE that paranoid, though it's not entirely without reason. SL had received a lot of bad press in the past by residents with a chip on their shoulders and a socialist agenda to push. Sexual deviancy exists in SL just as it does in RL; but in SL, it's not masked as thoroughly; which exposes the whole community to media scrutiny whenever someone has an ax to grind or an agenda to push.

If you think trying to "adopt" a child bot is bad, try adopting a live child avatar! The adoption process is nowhere near as intense, but the scrutiny by other people as you walk around and interact with your child certainly is. People are extremely quick to label people as perverts around here. I can only imagine what life is like for the child avatars themselves!

FWIW though - if the childbot idea doesn't work out for you, you should consider adopting a child avatar instead.

=^-^=

It is possible that this is not a real service but a "sting" operation

Something to consider. Due to SL being an internationally distributed platform laws and cultural considerations must be observed for many countries and regions if LL intends to continue to be allowed to operate in said places. Child anything, almost anywhere (in a role playing sense) is an extremely dangerous area to dabble in. What might be entirely innocent will be viewed with skeptitism by people who live or identify with the more restrictive cultures............it's big bon fire to play around with. What is being called "paranoia" could be "caution" instead. Rightly or wrongly, ones real life could be impacted (up to criminal actions taken against the participants)............even if innocent of any wrong doing.

Unless LL decides to deny people in those areas of the world that offense would be taken, finds a fool proof way to prevent both children and sex criminals from entering SL, or changes the way people think (perhaps all of the above) that will just a fact of life. You can't change it.

Nah, it's a real service. Quite a clever one too, if you ask me - regular kid avs may tend to grow tired of the family dynamic and may want a way out eventually, or simply start spending less time with the family. Or YOU might feel the same way. A bot kid's feelings can't be hurt when you decide the whole family thing isn't quite for you.

But this company is definitely going to be very, very insistent about nothing "adult" with their bots. Almost from day one, the creator's been complained to about how their bots could be used for that purpose. Not to mention the strategically-altered chat logs that have been posted by opponents and others leery of the notion. So yeah, the paranoia is justified in her case.

It's a real operation because she also sells adult bots as strippers and waitresses.

The funny thing is that she told me that all conversations with the bots are recorded, as well as all commands, and they have private ways of finding out what you are doing with the bot. Then after all of that she refused my adoption. Does that make any sense? Actually I was glad to get out of it after hearing about this level of surveillance and after reconsidering the expense.

I probably would have kept it for only a month because of my interest in AI, to see how well it could converse.

I thought I'd been in SL long enough to not be surprised by anything I see or hear about, but........!!!

The owners of the service are likely touchy because they, or a similar service, were recently demonized by two stories on the Second Life Herald:

http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/09/naughty-dreamscapes-ageverified-kidsbotz.html

http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/09/kidsbotz-may-have-been-abused-shocking-interview.html

I'm sure after the story they got all kinds of people wanting to do all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons.

Now THAT is creepy! Why put that kind of functionality into a kid bot? All it does is expose the creator to liability should one of her bots actually be used for illegal activities. And that's not mentioning the extreme invasion of privacy.

This is like having your DVD player log every DVD you ever watch and phone home to the MPAA with the info.

LOL same here!

I can understand them being super-cautious. I can also understand why you might not want to take on the commitment of adopting a real child avatar ... if you have AI friends, why not enlist their help in scripting your own kid-bot? After all, it's just a scripted alt on a lightweight client really, you could run it on your own machine for free. Personally, I find bots really creepy, especially the ones that talk.

I recently got a scripted cat, which I love, and which interacts in a variety of ways. Trouble is, I don't quite trust her to not wander off my parcel unless I keep an eye (she's not supposed to but I had a bad experience once with trespassing jellyfish) so I have to delete her whenever I log off, which feels deeply wrong.

Speaking of people with axes to grind and agendas to push!

I fail to see how it's any different from how the person behind a "real" kid avatar can see and remember everything you say to him or her. It can't possibly be construed as an invasion of privacy. You're renting an avatar, not a prim.

agreed, I don't think I'd want to pay for that.

but you're not quite, are you, it's a bot. The person with access to the chat logs isn't interacting with you - it's a script. It's a bit like renting a chat spy thingy. I can understand why a commercial operation would need to do that but it would still give me the creeps.

It's the principle of the matter. When interacting with a real person (or an avatar with a real person behind it), it is understood that the person can log the things you say and do. But this isn't an avatar controlled by a real person, so expectations are different.

There is also the matter of feedback. If I say something that you find offensive, you will likely tell me that, or give me some indication that I said something wrong, and I can stop or change course before real damage is done. I don't get that kind of feedback from a bot.

Hmm, now that I think about it -- are we sure it doesn't?

Maybe it was my 1920s Knickerbocker that gave me that pedi look!

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=476828[url]