Virtual Worlds and Morality

OK. So SL permits sex, in just about any form, and just about anywhere (except for PG areas). They used to permit gambling, and unregulated "banking" and "stock exchanges".

OpenLife permits gambling, I hear...but not sex, adhering to the Australian M-15+ standard.

Legend City Online has no restrictions that I've heard of.

My personal opinion is that there should be at least one grid that's completely open. Caveat emptor, all-out anarchy...with a permaban ability to shoot down griefers. I think SL had a lot more "spice" two years ago. I think it will be a very dull place two years from now, when it's all sanitized and Disneyfied and Made Safe For Corporate Use.

But my question is...what's the optimum solution? What should a virtual world permit, what should it regulate, what should it forbid?

Once the open source community really takes off and independently servers pop up all over the world I think it could become a monster like the P2P networks. You really can't regulate and restrict something that wild that's been unshackled from the confines of a corporation that is trying to cover their ass. If LL didn't have to worry about legal action being brought against them, then you could probably do anything you want. They're just trying to keep their business from getting destroyed. You yearn for the wild west of cyberspace, don't you? Hehe... I can see the romance of such a thing.

I don't really like any kind of regulation online, but I can see where a company is going to have to put in at least whatever regulations are needed for the country they are based in -- or they chance not being a company anymore. Personally, I think most counties should not be regulating as much online activity and content as they already do, but we have little chance of changing that.

In the case of the SL ban on gambling, this really had more to do with the financial aspects of the company. I think any company would have done the same because they cannot be expected to swallow the loss of credit card transactions.

and yet you can walk around all day with a joint hanging from your lips and a big bong puffin away....


Don't take away my right to get virtual high~

What happens in a virtual world is a performance.

You don't arrest actors because their characters kill each other, let alone pretend to smoke dope. ^^

To me, it's largely a matter of what consenting adults fairly agree on.
The economic things like gambling and banking were shut down mostly because they were a scammer's paradise, more than because of any moral/ethical objection to the actual product/service. -In the case of gambling, it was even by an outside law.

"An' it harm none, do what ye will."

Everything
Nothing
Nothing

Love it. Expected nothing less.

Chris, you are the modern day embodiment of the Rugged Individualist. Bravo!

Ideally the "World " would not allow or disallow anything. In RL there is no World Governmnet, thankfully yet, each nation has it's own laws customs and traditions. I would imagine the Open Grids would be "nations" unto themselves, and would allow/disallow whatever thier owner/operators wish, in concert with their customers.

There isn't one. There are just "local maxima".

I also suspect you'll see a hodge-podge of different levels of permissiveness, based on locality, business needs, and personal preferences. In my own corner of SL, of course, sexual ageplay is banned – and sometimes these rules lead to frustrating, silly situations like the one outlined on a separate current thread. Meanwhile, at least one of the open grid locales was founded by some of the folks that brought Wonderland, etc. to SL, and is from any reports permissive with issues of sexual ageplay.

I think the best solution is to have different areas of the world/grid which are separated and clearly marked. You could even add an option in preferences for your own personal content filter (ranging from Adult to Safe For Work). If you're in SFW mode, it won't let you go into an Adult area. There's no reason to make the whole world one way or the other.

--Hugsy

I don't want to see gambling back in SL but I can't help thinking it's a bit ironic that the US government banned internet gambling at the very time that we now know its major financial institutions were gambling billions of RL dollars on high-risk loans!

You mean like that star station in Star Trek? Maybe a sim that is a kinda space for the "spaced"? Unfortunately it would be so laggy that no one could move. 58000 people crammed onto a tiny sim. Hey wait a bit! Why not just change a few rules and accept we are all over 18 and call it sl?

I think it would be a great idea to do an experiment in complete and total anarchy if we could find someone to organize the event.

Otherwise we do now enjoy our relatively ad farm free mainland because of some long awaited restrictions put in place..

What I'd really like to see is some kind of client-side censorship. In my dream SL you have the option of seeing an object as the builder intended, turning it into a tree, or rendering it invisible. It's like visual muting, but with the bonus options.

Armed with this feature and the mute, ban options we already have, I'd be ready to completely do away with all restrictions save those desired by the land owners.

15+?

No Sex?

SL and the grid is a product of the mind. Unfathomable and suspended by a series of bits. Regulation is a form of policing the mind and thought. Regulation should be limited only to situations where other people's imaginations and enjoyment are infringed upon. Particularly infringement by vigilante patrols out to dictate a world of thought with their own agenda. (=_=)y

Unfortunately even in virtual space that has large amount of visitors, business and money situations happening their is always going to have real world implications, and someone wanting to dictate laws, morality and taxation at some point.
It is unavoidable even in the original Wild West eventually laws show up and were enforced.
When minors are in same popular spaces online with Adults there is going to be issues and law enforcement because their will be rule breakers who break laws.
Real life adults do get sent to jail for virtual offenses against minors.

I'm with Chris on this one. I like Hugsy's idea though.

There is a reason to make the world either Mature or Kid/Teens.

You can mark areas like PG or Mature, but a 12 year old can still be teleported, invited, lured, into adult situations in the adult area. Or some 15 year old can go around pretending he is 23 and just trying to meet people.

The very first person i met in SL was a 15 year old pretending to be 23 and when he found me I was naked. He pursued me for a while and was eventually removed from the grid and being reported by multiple people along with a chat log of his admitting his age.

Mixing M/PG is just a recipe for trouble. Kinda like pot lucks.

Yeah, just a bit ironic, that.


31 Oct 2008, walking along next to costumed kiddies...

..."My retirement fund was wiped out, I'm rebuilding."

..."Same with my 401k."

..."We may have cutbacks at work, I don't know."

..."How's it going Des?"

..."Ah... okay I guess?"

..."You didn't have any stocks or anything?"

..."No, nothing like that."

..."Nothing?"

... "Just ah... fake land on the internet."

..."What's that?"

..."Ever heard of furries, or steampunks?"

..."No?"

..."Then this is gonna be real tough to explain."

..."Are you serious?"

..."Yeah, totally serious. Trade you this chocolate for a taffy?"

Precious !!!

Hmm fine except I'd have to draw a fuzzy texta marker pen line somewhere like racist hate groups, child porn, terrorist groups, serial murderer/rapist tributes and other stuff a lot of people would agree is just wrong.
Everything can include a lot of things offensive to nearly everyone.

I believe that's referred to as being "broadly offensive"

Unfortunately, what you're saying is very much true although I do think that it would help some. Some kids actually do have good parents and would behave.

Regardless, what prompted my suggestion wasn't so much keeping kids out of mature areas, but more so much keeping adults (who don't wish to see adult stuff) out of mature areas.

Like when I try to demo SL to coworkers, I have to have specific preplanned spots to show them. I can't login and just go somewhere because I don't know what I'm going to run into. If I could set my system to SFW only, then I can let it prevent me from going somewhere embarassing.

--Hugsy