What Does PG Really Mean?

I recently acquired land in a region rated PG. Although in principle I prefer Mature because I dont like my behaviour to be limited or restricted by others, I bought this land because it was a good price, a good size, and in the area I wanted. However, I now face the problem of deciding just what "PG" really means. After thinking about it for some time, I realized that the definition is not self evident by any means, nor do I understand the process by which this is in force. One definition I heard is "do not engage in any behaviour anywhere in any PG sim, including public chat, that would not be appropriate for a 12 year old to view." After some reflection I realized that in SL this definition is absurd. First of all, there are no 12 year olds in SL. Second, what about the proper rights of an individual in his own home? I have more than 8000 square meters, my house is located away from the boundaries, and I have ban lines up wt a guest cottage that is public access. If I am standing naked in my own house, editing my Appearance, am I in violation of PG standards? I think not. If an 18 year old wants to disable their camera constraints and manipulate their camera to violate my privacy, penetrate my walls and observe me naked, well I dont think thats a violation of PG. What about furries? I have furry friends who are, by definition, naked, and even have genitals. Is this a violation of PG? If I have a dog in RL he's naked and has genitals, will an 18 year old be damaged by this? If he is hes a pretty strange 18 year old. So for me PG has come down to the normal standards that one would observe in RL in a world of 18 year olds, i.e., no nudity or sex in public places, which I observe in SL anyhow. What I do inside the walls of my house is my own business and provided I am 20 meters away from the boundaries, my public chat is my own business too.

Im wondering what people in general think of this, what experiences with PG standards others have had, and what the enforcement mechanisms in SL actually are. Thanks for replying.

First off: I don't really disagree with what you are saying here. That said...



Presumably, yes. Nudity is not pemitted in PG areas.



You would think that, yes. It would be a violation. An AR does not necessarily take into account the nuance of "so and so disabled their camera constraints and looked at me from a sim's length away"



Yes.

Second Life's concept of PG is much more in line with the MPAA's "G" rating. This might be why you got your land so cheaply!

Mari

OK since you've been open and honest I'm going to post my opinion for you

I personally think that even if you are on a PG sim, you say you have your house on permanent lock-down, so as you said if someone pulls out the pervcam to zoom into your home then its a sense of violation of privacy although SL has no rules about that. I don't find anything wrong with you standing in your private home naked and editing your appearance. You should be able to get away with that even in RL although certain things like closing the blinds and/or using a room with no windows are appropriate.

I guess it just comes down to what would you think if you saw your neighbors doing the same thing? As long as theres no full-out poseball action out on the front lawn I don't feel you are breaking any rules.

When it comes to furries, I do know that some do go for the most part fully nude but as you stated, animals in RL don't wear clothing either (except for the the ones owned by evil human tormentors that feel the need to accessorize their poochies with bling and more fur then they need.)

I hope this was sort of what you were looking for and look forward to seeing what others say

Here's the distinction as far as the Lindens are concerned:

http://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417

As far as what you do behind closed doors, I don't know if it applies or not, but I would probably expect not.

As far as furries are concerned, they are fine without clothes AND without visible or invisible, but still present, genitalia.

The problem is that there is no such thing as "behind closed doors" in SL.

Public nudity is against the community standards even in Mature areas, except in designated areas (private parcels, homes, public sex areas, nudist colonies).

PG areas prohibit even "private" nudity...because there IS no privacy.

In actual practice, you will probably not be AR'd for undressing in your own home with the curtains drawn, or even engaging in sex...but you COULD be.

It's stupid, I know. But even though there are no 12 year olds on the main grid (or not supposed to be anyway!), there are a lot of so-called adults who find any hint that people actually come in two sexes and have reproductive organs highly offensive. They marry, live in a house with separate bedrooms, never undress, and buy their babies from the Sears catalog.

ROFL

PG or mature doesn't really have anything to do with age, but to place restrictions on what kind of activity/content is allowed in the sim or not.

Even when land is mature there will be an additional expectation of how you should behave depending on where you are. Just because a store is on mature land and has a dressing room doesn't mean you should just act out a "sex in a public" roleplay there in open chat without regard to anyone else, even if the rating of the sim fits.

---

An "anatomically correct" furry might make sense in a sexual situation, but anywhere else it's no different than a human running around with equipped genitals and definitely not something you should be doing on a PG sim.

You said it better than I.



So that's where they come from!

Basically, PG exists for people who don't want to be surrounded by smut all the time. There are plenty of uses for PG areas: teaching, displaying artwork, businesses that do not involve sex such as electronics, research, consulting, etc. Amusement parks...

But if you expect to do "what comes naturally" then you should always buy mature for your home. It doesn't really matter if someone disabled camera constraints and looked, last time I checked that wasn't a violation of TOS in and of itself. Whereas stalking and harassment is, a one-off view would not be.

Yes, dear. Except that ImNotGoing was a WalMart bargain buy.

FTW!

Sort of like this?

At least I wasn't a Yadni's freebie! (>_<

Thanks for these opinions. I find them very interesting. It seems to me that the Lindens needs to reconceputalize their zoning rules a bit. First of all, I think its unreasonable to assume that people do not have a right to privacy. So there is a difference between what you do inside your home (even if technically someone can manipulate their camera to look at you, in RL someone can sneak up to your windows too) and outside. I dont disagree with the fundamental sentiment. The rule I would suggest is: PG means what would be the normally accepted code of behaviour for individuals in a public place in a society of 18 year olds, whereas Mature means red light city. In the former case that means no public nudity or sex or places of iniquity, like sex clubs, etc. (with the exception of "behind closed doors, in private or at home". The latter would allow public nudity, sex, and places of iniquity. Perhaps safety should not be able to be turned on in PG either, but only in Mature. I read an interesting blog about how a statute of a naked woman (non-porno) got prohibited in a PG region "because it had nipples," in the context of which someone's comment about how PG is good for academe was interesting. I visited the Princeton University sim recently. They had several art galleries. By the Puritanical perspective of PG put forward by some respondents many if not most of the great works of Western art would be prohibited in a PG region. This is ridiculous! SL is not Iran, not even in PG (at least, it shouldnt be). In my case this isnt much of an issue really, because I am a homesteader, living off the land, with my two horses (oh no! genitals?), and Im a bachelor by choice, but I am certainly not going to stop sleeping naked and if my punishment for that is being banned, well, you know what? Ill save $100 a month and wont bat an eyelash. Hey guys! Come visit me if you like and see for yourself, Im always looking for new friends (just keep your pants or dresses on). I live in Horisme, about a 3 minute walk from the end of the Great Linden Wall, on the track side of the wall, across the tracks from - a casino!

I understand what you're saying, and you do have some good points, but I can't really agree overall, for only three reasons: firstly, that "mature" sims DO exist, where none of these issues would even come up for you; secondly, that the region in which you bought land was clearly defined as PG before you bought it, and lastly, that you chose all by yourself, for your own reasons, to buy land in a PG sim rather than a mature sim. You can't buy a house next to an airport and then expect a lot of sympathy when you complain about all the noise.

PG in the SL definition means whatever LL wants it to mean at any given time.

Being home in SL isnt the same as being home in RL, and there is no such thing as privacy in SL.

It's easy enough to go to a designated area for changing or configuring your av or clothes.

When I first got land I thought "okay I can build here," but it's not practical unless you own a lot of land. I ended up using sandboxes anyway.

There are areas for mature content, cursing, fetishism and disturbingly graphic imagery, nudity and beyond (remember the F word warrants an instant R rating in films). There are a LOT more areas for Mature content than PG content. The Lindens accommodate everyone's pursuits I think.

If I had a choice I would have my gallery in a PG area, but I had no choice. The PG ones SEEM to be older areas and expensive if not fully occupied. Or private corporate sims or LL regions. I *only* see mature land.

Sure I can. I am at perfect liberty to disagree with the state of the world in which I live. By your argument I shouldnt complain about anything because I choose to exist. I.e., if I disagree I should commit suicide, because existence means I accept the status quo. That's not democracy, thats fascism. And you know what else? This unnatural polarization is bad for Mature sims too! It means that perfectly ordinary people who want to undress in their bedrooms are virtually COMPELLED (by your logic) to live next door to brothels, fornicating furries, porno art galleries, and every other vice and iniquity, imaginable and unimaginable. My idea is much better. Abolish PG as currently defined, redefine PG as Mature without the groups or gun violence, and redefine Mature as red light city/murder.

The point is, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Someone whose home could double for a BDSM gear shop doesn't get to say "it's my home" in a PG area. In the real world, you do have a reasonable expectation because there is no such thing as camming in. Since you should not have a reasonable expectation of privacy beyond banning actual entry onto your land, you need to comport with the sim rating, or buy some new land. It's not a free-for-all.

I didn't say you couldn't complain. I just said you shouldn't expect much sympathy.

The fact is, you knew what PG meant (or at least had a notion which wasn't too far from the truth). Knowing that, you freely chose to buy the PG land. Now you're griping because PG land is restrictive - and it is. But if you felt that way, you really ought to have bought a mature plot. That's just common sense.

I'll also point out that I rent a house in a mature sim and there isn't a brothel or porno art gallery for many sims around.

It shouldnt also be a fascist totatalitarian moral regime. TP out to change my clothes? Good grief. And I insist on my right to privacy. Youre wrong about RL too. Someone can sneak up to my window and look in (in fact, I have more privacy in SL cuz they cant do this cuz I have ban lines up). I do agree that a BDSM gear shop should not be allowed in PG, so we are not at entire disagreemet. What I am saying is redefine the terms a little bit.

I would submit a JIRA for it then.

Ray Bolger called. He wants his straw man back.



...or next to areas for bestiality and slave play -- but that is how it is. Trust me, I know.



Which would then mean that my home could be a shooting gallery. :-/

Mari

Whats that mean?

I didnt mean make Safety Off mandatory, I meant make it possilbe in Mature, impossible in PG. In fact, were seeig the same old double standard here arent we? I can turn Safety off on my lotbut I cant watch tv naked in my living room? God bless Amerika.