How to prove you are not a minor in SL?

so.. there's a place in SL where there is a cardboard box with the word "Meth" written on it. ....and .... what? This guy is a real jerk.

Who is gonna explain it to them. LL sure as hell can't be trusted to do that, they couldn't stop advertising first land for months after they ended it. And even if it were done, I still think most newcomers would just say it's not worth the effort.

Heck, it is hard to get lots of new people to weather through the OI process without turning SL off and thinking of it as a terrible experience.

Let's see:

There's no documented case of a child using SL to hook up with a a sexual predator.

There's no sort of proof that there is a widespread problem of children getting their porn from SL. Nor would I expect such, since elsewhere on the internet there is much higher quality porn that's easier to find and access.

Linden Labs's current policies and procedures to prevent children from using Second Life don't just meet legal requirements, but exceeds the standards of most sites offering adult material on the internet. And Linden Labs continues to at least try to improve upon it by working on this Age Verification process.

So what's wrong again?

The only entirely foolproof way of preventing children from accessing adult material on the internet is to not have an internet anymore.

Otherwise, no one has invented a perfect system of keeping children from accessing adult material on the internet. That is a problem the entire internet suffers, and suffered before Second Life was created, so I don't think the blame for children accessing porn on the internet can be placed on Linden Labs.

If there's blame to be laid, blame the US government for opening up ARPANET to the public, which spawned what we now know as the internet.

God Damn You Al Gore!!!!!!

that's not Al Gore! that's my biology professor!

The internet is for porn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWEjvCRPrCo

A bar can lose their liquor license and fined and worse, even if it's a believable fake ID.

Indeed if the DA pushes it, till an expert can testify that the ID in question could be used to fool and expert.

But a key point is the fact the user of said ID would face charges for using the false ID and for anything they did that should not have been done.

As is you are punishing a company and not the person that choses to violate the ToS and Shows the false ID to the system.

Tonight on CBS news was a story on the facial recognition software coming with all new Toshiba Laptops to prevent entry by someone else.


Or maybe the only way to join Sl should be with a phone call to LL and be asked a series of questions that were recorded and run through the voice software that catches liars that insurance companies use in personal injury investigations.

Which only checks the owner not their age, and would be considered invasive and orwellian intrusion into people's lives if it were used as an identifier




The same software that is about as accurate as a polygraph?

The same software that like the polygraph is inadmissible in court due to inaccuracy

It could just be used to match up to a xeroxed Driver license or ID photo. I'm sure a method could be developed that wouldn't be too Orwellian.



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But that plus talking to a person trained to ask the questions could flag people who needed to send in hard copy of proof.

Maybe SL would just have to have Local offices like the Phone Company. Imagine the long line of furries.

When you have to provide biometric confirmation it's too much.




World wide?

And here is the kicker, SL can move overseas where the laws for verification are lower. They chose to exced us laws as is in verification.

And stingent rules were attempted early on before the current laws were enacted, they were determiend too hindering to commerce and the public.

Obviously it's a problem that needs an answer and Sl is not the only place online where this question needs to be answered.

Numerous companies already claim to provide age verification services and it may always seem to border on Orwellian nightmares. Anything super high tech will seem Orwellian.

Age verification to buy liquor, firearms, tobacco, etc. Some are credit card based, some driver's license based.

People have to show birth certificates for a number of things. The problem is not unsolvable.

And maybe the problem is recognizing the real problem?

Where are the parents when the kid is online going places they shouldn't?

Is it easier to put the blame for the children doing things they shouldn't on a company, and punish the company for the parent's not doing their job?

[soapbox] I agree, this is the real and solid problem. Parents are pawning off the raising of their kids onto those of us who have enough to do (for the record, I'm a parent.) I mean, how hard is it to keep the computers in the living room? Or to password them so the kiddo has to ask to get on them? Apparently, too hard. [/soapbox]

One rule I'd love to see: If a parent brings a lawsuit against a company such as Second Life (where little precious should NOT be) that has gone to such lengths to keep the brat out, the parents should be held responsible if the incident happened while in the home.

At work? Who knows?



But it is to the company's advantage to figure out ways for it not to happen, especially when we already know that parents may have issues parenting.

I don't think anyone here is out to deny parental responsibility. In the real world however bad publicity can kill a company, so be proactive.

Like I asked before what if you found out someone you had been interacting with in a adult situation was really a kid lying and now you get arrested for doing weird things to childrren?

How would you feel? Wouldn't you be perturbed that LL hadn't been more attentive to the matter? Would the bad parent excuse fly? Even if you won the case legally, wouldn;yt you be happier if that had not happened? Wouldn't you want LL to be more thorough?

We have all read reports from people on these forums, saying they got Age verified using their pet's name etc.

Guess that about sums it up.

After that we are going to go after any Swing Set playgrounds that contain wood. Those splinters are hurty.

Heres a news story from today about Facebook

and they are not using basic precautions to protect their children? It takes 2 min to set up a password on a computer, 7 min to set up a limited account for the kids



does linden labs and most sites already attempt to keep them separate?

The question is why would an adult be punished for doing something in a chat room or online venue with someone that lied to hide their age? Now if someone said hey I'm only 15 but you want to go in private and play, then yes there would need to be concern for punishing the adult. But when the minor is falsifying information to the verification and in behavior they should be the one punished.

One way to put it is: If someone disables or bypasses the safety devices on a bandsaw and then loses a hand... is the manufacturer responsible?

Want to hear the fun bit: They most likely will be adjusting TOS and matching LL's verification levels

And LL already offers the warning, up in the title bar (mature) and in limiting the main grid to 18+

If there is less then desirable manufacturing, I would bet that courts have said yes in the past. But isn't it wise for the saw maker, to make the saw safer to prevent injury and avoid those lawsuits?

Within reason. If you're too damn stupid to get your hand out of the way in the first place, the answer is no.

Within reason. Some of the SL verification schemes you've mentioned are far from reasonable.

Edit: *shakes fist at Oryx*

and with facebooks popularity how will all that work, when there are reports of people verifying using their pet's name and fake info?