Age Verification is here!!

God knows Brenda... it makes no sense to me either. its not sense, but do we really expect sense? My guess is they are hoping we verify because we don't know better, and they don't care if we don't, they don't lose. We do. I lose my Second Life, as i know it.

imogen

lol. I know I keep going over the same thing, but this is what really bothers me. I accept that no system will be perfect, but the UK implementation doesn't seem like a bonafide verification system by any stretch of the imagination. If Integrity are doing anything at all with our driving licence and passport numbers, I can only imagine it involves matching them against regular expressions. I'm honestly scratching my head wondering if I've missed something - if there is some conceivable way they could use this information to verify a person's identity - but it just seems like an audacious exercise in bullshittery.

If that's the case (surely not?), then yeah, what's the point? The whole verification system is compromised because it's not about the occasional teenager getting hold of a parent's social security number any more, but about people in certain countries not having to enter valid information at all.

Ok it's offtopic but Clouseau is a french police man. Hercule Poirot is the Belgian one

Its a Tacit Conspiracy.

I imagine it went something like this....

FBI and LL sit down in a meeting room...

FBI --- "We want you to keep minors off your game, or we will have to shut you down"

LL --- "OK fair enough, we will ask everyone to give ID and verify"

FBI --- "Thanks, you do that"

FBI and LL leave the meeting room, both thinking "OK, duty done... back to work guys"

imogen

I think it's doable to an extent. With electoral roll data they could certainly match names to addresses (I guess if that matches credit card billing data it's a good match), but not everybody elects to make their ER data public. (We can tick a box to prevent our entry going on a public version of the electoral roll which is available for businesses to buy.)

I actually wouldn't mind verifying if the data required wasn't too sensitive, and the procedure actually made sense. As it stands, I just can't make sense of this, but I sure think there's some truth in what Ciaran and Imogen are saying.

man I loved Poirot too... I have read every single Agatha Christie novel

But Clouseau is sure more fitting with the "narc on your neighbor" policy.

I've been searching to find out what I could re. how they could verify with Canadian SIN or DL numbers... the only thing I could find on the SIN is an online thingy that would verify if the check-digit was correct. Of course, nothing is provided by the gov't that would let you check a person's identity with it. Indeed, the official stance is the SIN is not to be used for identification and you shouldn't give it out to anyone other than employers, some gov't branches, and some banks / invenstment institutions.

An Ontario drivers licence can be used online to verify age - there's an online tool that you can use where you put in a DL number and you can get back a name and a date of birth (no address though). However, the gov't charges your credit card $12, they don't certify the data, and you have no way of knowing that the DL belongs to the avatar - only that the DL belongs to someone of a certain age.

I didn't even look into passport stuff because seriously, if it's not a crime to hand out your passport # on the internet, it should be.

It sure would be interesting to learn more about how they plan to verify ID for non USA customers, i.e. what they're matching our info against.

-Atashi

For now, doubt it. Its only sent to concierge customers for "testing" its not fully activated yet

So it's our fault and we're to be investigated because some people can't or won't control their own kid's access to the internet?

Yeah its our fault becuase people cant get their kids to stick to Myspace and Porn sites like they used to.

"I'm a Belgie not a Frenchie!"

grins

I used Clouseau because Poirot had competence...

The reference to Belgian police is more than ironic, because they wee implicated in a particularly awful pedohphile murder case a number of years ago that reached fairly high into the police and the government...

While I realize the more philosophical issues are of greater import, I can't even get past the mechanics.So, if this means what it says, the instant it's even possible for regular residents to verify, all the parcels designated as restricted by the concierge-level residents will be off-limits to all regular (non-concierge-level) residents, until such time as they verify. That is, while regular residents are scrambling to to verify, only the already-verified concierge level residents will have access to the parcels they restricted. Good plan! For these purposes, who's the "owner" of group-owned land? Each of my renters gets their own group so they can adjust parcel settings, ban lists, etc.; of course they aren't in the "Owner" role of that group (which I fear defines the responsible parties), but... it sure would be appealing to delegate responsibility to the renters for compliance of their rented parcels. (Can the concierge-level folks see if designating a parcel to be restricted is even an Ability that can be assigned to a group Role?)

Otherwise... I just don't see that I have any choice but to designate everything Restricted, on the off-chance a tenant rezzes a poseball in a moment of passion, just as the German Journalist Brigade for WholesomeKinder cams through. That's gonna be a fun message to compose: "Dear tenant, please don't take this the wrong way, but your home is about to be designated pornographic. Now, tell your identity secrets to this Aristotle guy so you can teleport home." Perfect. When they mark the Restricted parcels in the menubar, I'm hoping for a Scarlet "A."

Poirot was like the first male protagonist I ever read who I thought was amazing... sexy even lol... (mind you I was in the 4-6th grades then, when first reading Agatha Christie)

...maybe this shaped my choices in the opposite sex later on in life



Coincidence (though a pretty ironic one) I'm quite sure Des is referring to Belgium (in particular Brussels) as the seat of the EU, though.

I come to SL for pure entertainment and social reasons, like I would expect many, many others are. I am a pure consumer of the goods available on sale here, I do not take L$ out of SL. I rent land on an island and pay my land lord a fair chunk of my SL entertainment budget, the rest of that SL entertainment budget goes on L$ for spending.

I will not be verifying, ever, even if it was the easiest thing to do in the whole world. I will not willingly have my account matched to whatever data Integrity/Aristotle may have on me.
I would not trust any other third party either.

I also do not give my passport or drivers license information publically and I challenge anyone to obtain this information from the internet about me. I am not about to start doing this, not just so I can be entertained and meet people.

If this means my SL experience is neutered significantly then I will spend less and less as my entertainment dwindles. There may come a point when I just dont come back to SL.

If I had an SL business, I would be very worried about people like me. If enough of us leave, then your businesses will be impacted.
Businesses rise and fall on the back of the consumers and their choices (or lack of choices sometimes).

Every thing LL does that impacts the entertainment of people such as me, will see more and more leave. The SL economy already seems to be taking a hit recently and there are signs that it is not just the US summer lull.

In addition everything about the age verification system has been secretive and lacking in detailed information and accountability. Every fact about this system that we know has been extracted almost painfully at great effort. If LL and Integrity are not accountable then they cannot expect us to be either.

Ditto this entire posting.

Statements such as this sadden me. These are not "conspiracy theories" these are facts.
North American Union
http://www.eagleforum.org/topics/NAU/

Wake up, The U.S. is NOT the only place that is being manipulated by lies and deceit and a controlled and massively censored main stream media.

Your statement is a perfect example. We are continually bombarded with statements that train us to react to statements that we haven't watched on television as if they are insanity.

SL's growing regulations which limit it's freedoms are merely a mirror of the real world, since, as many have stated here, they must operate within the REAL world laws. Laws which are not passed with public support or knowledge. rather they are simply snuck in as a fine print to a completely different law that seems okay, or, as we have seen lately, dictated into law by executive orders based on "states of emergency" clauses and other easily manipulated loopholes.

Honestly, if you want a free SL, then you need to look around to your own real life and be sure it is free. As this wise person stated, speak up to those who would change your entire world right under your nose while flooding you with crap about pedophile pop stars and propoganda regarding "conspiracy theorists" who are merely pointing to the facts that the media may show once, but is then instructed to never show again, and in many cases, actually remove all evidence of ever airing or printing.

Those of you who are shaking your heads and refusing to accept the parallels between what goes on here and what happens around you every day in real, are the rats marching to the piper's tune. Aye, perhaps verifying is not going to be the shackle clanging shut around your ankle as the train pulls out of the station, but you can rest assured in the figurative sense at least, it will be taking one step closer. Of COURSE that information is going to be kept, and used, though I don't think you need worry about identity theft. These entities do not want your identity to assume for their own, rather they want it to catalog and analyze and gain knowledge from so that their manipulations can be planned and put into action which protect their long term multi generational goal.

Who stands to gain from knowing exactly who is taking part in a virtual society of intellectuals from every corner of the globe.

I am sure those living in the EU never thought that a single entity would be dictating all aspects of their country's laws and economy. Yet here we are 50 years later, and I wonder how many remember that it was sold to them as a free trade agreement in the beginning.

How will you feel when you go to your court or your tribunal and win your case, only to to have that decision reviewed by a higher organization which decides to overturn it.

Make no mistake, the NAU is right around the corner, and events have been put into motion for a very long time to make us have no real choice but to accept it or be willing to take the risks that the American Republic's founders made when they chose to stop farming, cooking, writing, and working to become teachers, statesmen, speakers, and indeed militia to say, we are the ones who will decide our future, not a few elite fatmen with no respect for human life or liberty.

I am sorry, I know noone wants to get political. Me least of all. Yet I am noone's slave, and refuse to be herded with the sheep and cattle to a predetermined end that is so obviously kept secret, and I dare say with good reason.

So accept it or not, a second life for a human being is going to require just as much vigilance and effort as the first if you expect to have autonomous liberty.

<steps off soapbox>

I fail to see how this has anything to do with LL's identity verification. I failed to see it with Thunderclap's absurd post and I still fail to see it with yours.

As far as the NAU is concerned, seems like an open borders scheme which is being blown completely out of proportion by conspiracy theorists. Nothing to get overly upset over in my book. The EU is far more pleasant to travel now with open borders, in my direct experience.

And that still has nothing at all to do with LL and their reasons for identity verification.

You are too quick to assumem, you should educate yourself on exactly what the plan entails before passing judgement. It is not so much an open borders as a NO borders. No longer will you have your own mopnetary system, it will be replaced by the Amero, a common currency between US, Canada, and Mexico. All economies will become one, meaning you will absorb our debt and Mexico's.

As to how it applies. Oh believe me, everything applies when it comes to people and information. Information is as they say... Power.

Can you tell me how your pet conspiracy theory over NAFTA has anything to do with LL's identity verification plan? Where exactly does the Lab come into this?

Inquiring minds want to know I mean, that whole stint with the German television show filming those ageplayers and then showing it to Robin Linden in person... must have been a stunt, a coverup... for the real plan! *wink*

As a mater of fact, in retrospect, something that should be immediately obvious to any one who pays attention to things... this all fits the classic template for regulation and control. A staged event that leads to fear ( in this case LL's fear of possible future litigation ) and that fear being played in to bring about reduction in personal freedoms and liberties. Okay, admittedly LL is a private company, they can ask for whatever they want. However, this involves a third party, not to mention what many hold to be thhe most valuable asset on the internet, their personal identifying information.

I understand that many will not see any correlation, and will have other opinions as well. I applaud it. So long as you are honestlythinking for yourself, don't base your opinion on any one source, not mine, not the tv's, not LL's... seek all the sources you can to base it on, and then add to my own. Thank you.

Of course the easiest way to deal with the age verification issue is to simply make SL "PG" like many of the other virtual worlds are.

I live in Germany, it's yer problem dude

I like the fact I can sail into France, Italy and Austria and use the money in my pocket. Contrary to your belief, it's not open borders to everyone, just those in the economic zone. There's quite a bit of coordination between border police of member states. Lots of Euro sceptics were against it saying those things and it's not come to pass. Actually, our currency is stronger than the dollar nowadays, and our economy too. Funny, that.

So, all those conspiracies never came to pass in the EU. I'm not always a fan of Brussels for various reasons (mostly to do with lack of transparency and corruption from time to time) but the EU and economic liberalisation (nothing to do with liberalism in America - liberals in Europe are closer to libertarians in the USA actually) has for the most part done more good than harm as a general concept. However, the history that brought about the rise of the EU was the aftermath of WWI and II, and the desire to never see wars like that in Europe again.

No news articles of any credibility bring up anything about this "union" about which you speak... but I see quite a bit about NAFTA so I can only assume it is about that. I wasn't against NAFTA, either.

oh yeah, the above still has nothing to do with LL and identity verification. sorry about that.

Noone else thinks it is a bit too coincidental that all this is following immediately LL inviting the FBI into SL to investigate the gambling.

Child pronography has been used to manipulate many different things in the world due to the very strong and very passionate feelings regarding it. It would have actually stuck out like a sore thumb to someone who was looking for a weakness to play on.

And for the last time, it isn't your age that is the issue. It is what you have to provide to verify that age. Yes that info is already out there , the thing is, they don't know yet who is in SL. You can bet your bottom Amero<sarcasm> that they are chomping at the bit to get that info. It may not affect you immediately or directly, but it most likely will have an affect, though not one that is likely to be traced to this as a cause, since all logical deduction seems to have been slain by sneering news anchors and comedic political show hosts.

Guess it is no wonder why I sought out a second life hmm.

Shakes head and hopes you realize, the dollar has been weakened to make the Amero easier to accept. UN troops are already being transported into America, you should look at history and you will see the "borders" which you refer to are nothing but checkpoints now. Anyways, as you said, this really has nothing to do with age verification.... and the economy has nothing to do with a nation's sovereignity... right?

Anyways, last post, please everyone go back to discussing the small and unimportant decision to require the "registration" of anyone in SL who actually wishes to have the "freedom" to enjoy it's diversity.

"Papers Please!"