Age Verification is here!!

Maybe becuase they figure if you will provide this information you must be who you say you are

LOL

It's not an issue of trust. And it IS having an impact already. I received 4 offline IMs already from places I have vendors talking about changes they are having to make now that LL is doing this. I will quite possibly be losing vendor spots, and thus income in SL.

Gambling did away with casinos...it seems this is a way to do away with adult materials in SL. Think about it, SL is a place where many many people can come to act out their most extreme desires safely...would YOU want to be forced to make the following declaration?

"Hello, my name is Mrs. Sarah Jane Smith, mother of 3, age 42, living at 123 Main St. Anytown, USA, and I like to dress like a chicken and have sex with a horse"?

Attaching a specific ID verification to your account will do that, if you enjoy such practices.

I haven't decided yet. Since I don't go around dressed like a chicken (or doing horses), that's not so much of a problem to me. But, I AM a grandfather to two lovely young girls, and I DO make and sell things in SL that are considered outside the normal things you would see walking down the street of Anytown, USA.

I may not dress like a chicken, but my avatar is a 7' tall demon with a tail, horns, red eyes, and burns when he hovers...

Not exactly what you see on main street either.

Since I live in the bible belt it's not a stretch of the imagination to imagine being a demon that sells things in mature areas of SL to be something that might cause me a few problems being the grandfather to two underaged girls were it to become public knowledge.

I don't like the idea of giving up my SSN or DL number. Identity theft is a real problem. My DL doesn't have my SSN on it to protect against that very thing. Identity theft is an easy thing to do. Giving that information to a company that has been proven to sell the info they gather doesn't seem like a wise choice. I believe that, under federal law, you can't REQUIRE someone to give you their SSN unless there are tax questions involved. With the recent attempts to tax virtual income in the USA, you have to wonder if this is laying the groundwork for that. LL already knows how much money you put into or pull out of SL, if they can PROVE who you are to the taxman when he comes knocking, then they can report just how much money you have been making to make sure you pay the taxes on it...or get arrested for not paying the taxes you weren't aware you owed.

As I said, I am undecided.

I enjoy SL. I enjoy making the things I sell in SL. I enjoy the people I meet and talk to in SL. I think we will see fewer of the things I like in SL as more and more of this verification takes place.

SL was fun when I first joined. I've watched it change so much and so far from it's claims of
that it really saddens me to see them still claiming it. If it's "entirely built and owned" by us, shouldn't we have some say in it? Well I say No.

I was verified when I joined. Not long after I joined they switched to "open enrollment" or whatever they called it, where they let anyone create an account with whatever details they wanted. When I joined I had to be able to prove in some way I was connected to the name I entered as my own. I did that. That should be enough. Now you are telling me that if I want to be able to get to my own vendor locations I have to provide you and your 3rd party partner with further details about who I am to be allowed access to what I have built and own. Isn't paying you $22.50 every 3 months enough? Attached to my identity verified paypal account? Check my standing with paypal, you will find I have every verification they offer, and they verify me through my bank as well.

When is enough enough? Is this all just because there was a story on German TV about underaged sex in SL? Underaged people aren't allowed in SL, so it's not an issue. Just go back to what you used to do, require that people prove they are who they say they are when they join up. Did you realize just how bad a mistake you made when you quit requiring that, so now you are going overboard in the other direction?

I already proved it to you. Set the flag in my account that says so so that I can continue to have access to what I have been paying you for access for for the past 16+ months.

Quit screwing up this world we are building for you...sit back and let us play. Fix all the problems you have caused already, quit adding in new ones (like IDV) and hoping we will ignore the old ones. Hell, I'm still waiting for you to fix flight! When I first joined I loved flying around SL in all kinds of aircraft. Haven't been able to do that for nearly a year...crossing a sim line is gambling with your aircraft.

Wait a minute, gambling is illegal in SL now...

Hmmmmmmm...

Guess you'd better hurry and fix it eh? Wouldn't want to be arrested for breaking your own rules, now would you?

ImpDaddy
ImpDaddy Designs

So just for fun, to see how easy it is, I paid one of those internet search things to do a background check on my best friend. I pretended that I knew only her name and city. $20 gave me her address, marital status, criminal record, workplace, etc etc.

If someone REALLY wants to commit identity theft, it's as easy as paying $20. Just a heads up.

Right but if you get in trouble due to identity theft after having approved that the 3rd party checks databases to get the info, then you can never claim it as a theft. You GAVE it to them.

Wake up!

Hello? I'm awake! I totally understand the concerns about 3rd party, etc. I was just making an observation on how easy it is to get info on people even WITHOUT their social security number. Jeesh.

Very true, there's a lot of information about us out there. When we fill in these little surveys or free to enter competitions. When we sign up for store cards, special offers, mobile phones yadda yadda yadda.

Being able to verify who is in world will allow for real and binding permanent bans for serial griefers, thief’s and con-men.

Alas no, each alt has to be verified separately so the person will simply switch accounts. LL only have a match code, no idenitifiable information.

If you get ripped off and go to court, you'll have to get a subpoena for LL to release any information they hold on that resident, so it's no different to now.

Alas no, each alt has to be verified separately so the person will simply switch accounts. LL only have a match code, no idenitifiable information.

If you get ripped off and go to court, you'll have to get a subpoena for LL to release any information they hold on that resident, so it's no different to now.

Call me negative Nancy, but I really do feel the benefits of this scheme are only one way...and it ain't ours. We're even going to have to pay, albeit a small, fee.

We're even going to have to pay, albeit a small, fee.

lol Matthew! Do you mean that you don't think the verification (in the UK) uses any data from LL (or your on-file credit card with them) to verify that the name you type matches your acocunt, or the address matches that on your credit card? You think you could type any name?

This creates and environment where people can either become accountable for their actions and enjoy great freedom or have complete anonymity, but with limited freedom.

There is no loss of anonymity inside the game;

Yet.

Until 90% of the grid becomes closed to you if you are unverified. Until merchants refuse to sell you things unless you are verified, etc. It's a serious concern for how this will unfold down the road, as LL begins to include other verifications so that people can, as they say in the blog, "shed their anonymity".

This is very much the tip of the iceberg we're looking at here.

The anonymity is only lost to the data miner. LL isn't going to give your psycho stalker ex-SL bf/gf your identity. While it is the tip of the iceberg with regard to local law enforcement and passing the liability on, it is not going to be open season on your identity to other players. LL may be misguided but they aren't dumb.

This creates and environment where people can either become accountable for their actions and enjoy great freedom or have complete anonymity, but with limited freedom.

But, there's a lot of real estate between "complete anonymity" and "your full identity". The blog indicates that SL intends to allow users to "shed their anonymity" in various ways -- one can only surmise that this will include A/S/L if you wish to do so at some future point. Voluntary? Fine. But it won't be voluntary once it starts to become expected. That's the issue, really.

I think what it signals is the plan to block certain activities by IP address, something that people - mainly Europeans here - have been clamoring for (particularly with reference to gambling, although I don't expect that to come back). It allows blocking of participation in activities by a participant where one such activity is illegal in their home country. Does that divulge a person's location? Not directly, unless it was widely known that X activity was illegal in only one jurisdiction.

The IDV system aims to deliver two things. First, for Residents, it gives them the chance to independently verify certain aspects of their identity (their name, age, location and sex for instance) if they choose to. This will help establish trust by removing a layer of anonymity for those they interact with. It’s much easier to trust someone who puts their name behind their words and actions.

Well I decided to give it a go... they've already got all the other info on me, and the last 4 digits of my SIN wouldn't do them any good.

Except it didn't work. It's not reassuring that when you select Canada as the country code, it doesn't appear to change anything to let them know you're verifying with Canadian documents. Province instead of State, Postal Code instead of Zip Code, and SIN instead of SSN. At any rate, it didn't work.

I don't have a valid passport, they can't have my DL # (although I would part with half the #, because half the # is worthless), and I don't know what the 'personal identification number' is.

Have any Canadians been verified successfully yet?

-Atashi

That has nothing at all to do with legality whatsoever. Note the references to A/S/L and "name". The agenda here is driving the bus towards this, which LL thinks is "needed" not just for the legal reasons relating to age verification and related legal issues, but for "trust" generally. If you read the blog it's pretty unmistakeable where the bus is heading, in my view.

It’s much easier to trust someone who puts their name behind their words and actions.