Hello,
I have followed with interest announcements regarding age verification. The policies regarding whether alts could/should be age verified is apparently not decided. I think the issue is broader then age verification as it applies to alts. The real question is whether there are legitimate game and business reasons for alts that outweigh reasonable risk or legal exposure of LL.
Legitimate reasons for alts? I think anyone that understands SL and the diverse environment and interests available can easily understand reasons why it is beneficial to crucial for alts to exist. Conducting business in SL and using SL on a personal level is but one of the more obvious reasons. What if alts were no longer available, certainly any process that LL could establish can be circumvented if the desire by the end user warrants the effort. So who would be locked out of creating alts for legitimate reasons - more then likely it would be the very people that contribute to SL in meaningful and financial ways. In most cases the more successful SL residents that actually provide significant financial input and that enrich the environment though the goods and services they provide would have to choose between business or personal use of SL but never both.
If you doubt the hypothesis consider how many IM’s a popular product or service can generate on a daily basis not to mention endless queries from passing avatars anywhere that business provider might choose to appear. Yes, of course there should be customer service but be realistic, the real dollar profits from many products and services is not large enough to support a staff to field every comment and question on a 24x7 basis. Does that business “provider” have no right within SL to simply enjoy the environment as any other resident would? To enforce a no alt policy will be to force SL business providers to:
1) Decide that being forced to be in customer service mode every moment logged into SL is simply not worth it.
2) Determine that they would rather retain the ability to use SL on a personal basis and stop selling/providing content or services.
3) Use “creative” means to circumvent the no alts policy.
Options 1 & 2 will only serve to diminish SL in creative content and financial ways. Option 3 essentially forces them to violate what would be the new TOS, potentially exposing them to some sort of “sanctions” by LL. Few people that have significant effort put into the products and services sold in SL would want to take that risk.
Now lets consider that only one account (legitimately created) could be age verified. Again many of the same trade offs have to be weighed, what makes it better or right that one account only can be age verified? Certainly, when the **person** is age verified it matters not from a legal standpoint which SL account they happen to be logged in to. Again its placing a restriction for no real legal or SL economic gain, in fact it will be a disincentive to enter the SL and spend considerable effort to enrich the environment.
Sure alts can be abused, but like things in real life many things are. Those instances are handled individually. Who would propose banning all computers because *some* are used to facilitate illegal activities? Alts are intrinsically neither bad or good, however as SL exists and the direction of 3D “worlds” seem to be headed in with user contributions to enrich the environment, I believe alts are necessary and need to be accounts on equal status as any other (i.e. age verified, or any other policy that might be necessary in the future).
Lindens are your listening?
Have fun,
Sirius