Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

/me sits down on the couch with a box of chocs and a glass of wine and waits....

anyone care to join me?

But the thing is, they do ask for id. Online there is no way to get an idea of a person's age simply by looking at an avatar. That is the dilemma.



Which is why criteria are important, and working to get the definitions as acceptable as possible, but that is a different thing than expecting no limits at all, especially when the only limit really being asked is proof of age.



The fact that much of the internet is not restricted is more a result of limitations on ability to enforce than anything else, particularly given international boundries. For example, your government has limited effectiveness in preventing sites in other nations from portraying Nazi's. SL, though is an American company operating on US soil, isn't it? Doesn't that alone mean that one should expect US views to have more sway? Note not saying that those views should be agreed with, just that they are typical US views.

The problem with freedom is that one man's freedom is another man's restriction. There always have to be limits of some sort. I suspect the main issue here is not against adult activities, but to try to reduce the risk of kids getting involved in them. Of course being completely safe in that regard is impossible, but reducing the risk is different from a goal of no risk.



Only to a point. Total freedom is likewise bad.. that is called Anarchy and has a lot of other problems.



You and I are 18+, but not everyone who gets on to SL will be. Kids like to experiment with things they often are not ready for. It may be impossible to protect them completely, but that does not mean that there should be no attempt to at least slow them down.



The funny thing about Don Quixote is that the windmills sometimes really do turn out to be giants. In the end, it was decided that the Don, and the world, was better off with him had stayed delusional. Indeed, if anything, we are the Don Quixotes here, trying a desperate battle to save the illusions.



That may be, but a company protecting its shareholders is both moral and ethical, as long as they do so within the law otherwise. They may not be doing a good job of it, but presumably they are not doing so on a whim. Companies are in the business of doing business. Regardless, do you have a link to anything other than speculation as to why this is all happening?



Then why are there age checks in clubs, even ones where you can be ejected if you try to touch the dancers? Even if they are only used on those who appear underage, they are still there.



I agree that age verification has to be more effective, and that the issue of security of the information sent has to be dealt with. If it is *impossible* for LL to get it right though, then it is also impossible for LL to get anything right, including leaving things as they are. WIth less noise trying to oppose this outright, it may improve the odds of getting them to do it right.

Per, I think it is Howard in his blog entry says coding is well on the way to inplement adult changes, aiming at June 2009 in viewer 1.23 which will have few other changes so the adult changes can get online. So the changes are already decided, coding doesn't start till they know what to code, and there is a time line established. You seemed surprized when I said that I thought beta work was going into the viewer at your office hours.

But I thank you for gathering your eight answers and will look foreward to reading them.
Thank you.

i would imagine there are people still buying land who are unaware of the changes that will impact them directly, because you havent told them, you are scammers, this isn't a questions and answers thread at all, its just a front and you all know it.

/me snuggles uo to her and steals a few chocs.

If you were to take the time to read every post in this thread and the preceding ones, as I and many others have done, you would see that far from simply opposing this outright, many intelligent and useful suggestions have been made. So far, sadly, most of them appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

/me pours Drake a glass of wine, tops my own up then looks at the clock.

I first joined SL in January of 07. It wasn't until February of 09 that I got my first piece of land - my Linden office. It was an amazing experience to be able to stand there on this fresh parcel and think of the possibilities. I love my land as well and I really do understand feelings of being attached to it. I've had this land for 2 months and it feels like home. I can only imagine how you must all be feeling after years and years. I can only hope that the fear, resentment, distrust and anger you are all feeling can one day be replaced with a renewed sense of excitement of standing on that fresh plot - imagining the possibilities.

I don't mean any disrespect with this post. But there were a few posts prior that made me think about me and my parcel and I wanted to share.

Ran across this interesting article. Opensim is making real progress. They are implementing an inworld/region currency - http://www.cybertechnews.org/?p=1202 . SL may have some real competition soon. I could run an entire region on my equipment for no monthly tier fee or keep paying $40/month for a measly 8192 sq meters. Sounds like SL needs to pause and hit rewind on this new "Change" By implementing a currency transaction system, OpenSim biz owners can now cash out. Think this will all hit critical mass soon. What I have seen of the "inworld" experience there lately seems to be about the same as in SL currently. Random crashes, tp probs, lag, etc. etc. lol I downloaded opensim and did some tests last year and it was interesting. Looked and ran like SL circa 2006. Will be downloading and doing some tests with the latest version soon to take a look. There are alternatives coming soon. With the same unrestricted freedom that existed on SL back in 2006. And with everyone running their own servers, they can run them according to their local countries laws. Thus not having to abide by US law or customs if you are not located in the US. Casinos and gambling galore, sex, guns, etc. Will be wonderful to be free again.

Because they're not even going to be ready to start until after 1.23 comes out, and that's slated for June, so this is all talking about something that's going to actually start in July or August.

And yet, if the bar has a security camera watching the door, the results could be the same. The point is that the check is there in RL. If the check could not be put in place legally in RL, would the club be allowed to remain?




And yet the image is intended to simulate reality. It is not a dancing toaster. In both cases, they cannot be touched, at least not without your getting tossed out of the club in RL.
Which are the stricter limits you talk about about? If walls in RL were not solid, you think any of those clubs would be allowed to stay open?



That is a separate issue though. If the information is being misued, then there is a major crime. Note I am not talking just your name and address here, I am talking credit card or passport/drivers licence information. Isn't the selling of *that* information a felony?



Children cannot be held too responsible for breaking rules for the same reason that there are rules limiting what they can or cannot do. Any child considered responsible enough for to be held in account for their actions to that level is usually considered an adult and the crime raised to adult court.



Really.. and if a store sold you that penthouse as a kid that would have been entirely your fault? That only *you* would have had responsibility in that? Since when does the kid have all the responsibility and the adult none?



And reasonable precautions to deter the kid are the kid's responsibility? Why do we limit kids at all then, if they are so responsible? If they are capable of adult level decisions, then why are they not considered adults?



It will never happen because kids are kids, and not considered adults. That may be a questionable position to some, but it is society's position. That means the onus is on the Adults to say 'no' sometimes, not to say 'well you are someone else's problem so I guess you can be here' or 'we will let you know you shouldn't be here, but will do nothing to try to stop you if you want to come in anyway.'



Cartman is not exactly presented as a paragon of virtue, though. He is presented as a git who, if the parents *were* taking responsibility would have had locked up long ago. None of the parents in South Park behave responsibly though. That is part of the point of the cartoon, that the kids are *forced* to be the adults. The fact that Cartman is treated with as little respect as he gives and that only the intervention of adults (especially the fact that noone believes the kids when they try to inform them of what Cartman does) keeps him around. In insisting that the kids are someone else's responsiblity, even at the gates to your own house, aren't those of you opposed to this acting in a similar fashion to the parents of South Park?



Again, you are assuming this is about adults. Maybe I just have a different perspective, being new here, but I am not sure you are really looking at this objectively.



Heh, there is much in the old testiment that does not get into the regular Sunday sermons. Titus Andronicus is billed as a tragedy, and is not performed anywhere near as often as his later plays. The later tragedies are not so graphic, right up to the Tempest, which is sort of a reformed tragedy... it has dark momments but sort of ends in redemption.

Do you know of any public productions of either the old testiment or Titus that show any of that in graphic detail?

I'm attempting to bring as many answers as I can. I'll be posting another set of 8 later today.

Noted!

A client side solution is easier. A client side solution is one where the client downloads everything and does the occlusion calculations locally.

Red or White? Who am I kidding - I enjoy both

I know.. I was responding mostly to those who were opposing this outright though

One of the more common suggestions, though, initiating a PG continent, assumes that the issue is people wanting a PG environment, as opposed to people wanting to limit the ability of kids to see or be involved with content they are not emotionally ready for.

It seems to me that if there really was enough demand for a PG continent independant of the other issue, it would be such a no brainer that they would have done it already.

Does that mean I'm in your killfile? Oh, cool!

lol stop trying to be cute and get back to that typing... no wine for you until you've answered your daily quota. Then you can join us on the couch with your tipple of choice..

I might even break out the shaker and make us some yummy cocktails.. we'll have you dancing on the table in no time

Sounds like you have a great deal of investment and time in your land like many others here. I hope for you and others that may be asked to move that if they (LL) built it once they can do it again.

You also have placed some basic restrictions of your own to try and keep unwelcomed lookers out. Good for you for forward thinking the issue.

Will now join the others on the sofa to enjoy the chocolates.

Yes, actually - waaay back in 1986, there was a production of Titus at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Stratford Ontario), with full representation of all the rape and gore, lots of slashing and gashing, etc., etc. - great performances.

Oh, wait a minute - I said 'representation' didn't I? And 'performances'? Hmmm... sounds a lot like SL then... actors playing a part, indulging in a few hours of fantasy roleplay...

Well, theres a couple bottles of a rather nice Barolo on the side-table by the couch.. its a bit early in my timezone but hey, anyone who wants help yourselves. Let it breathe in the glass some, its got a wonderful nose so dont miss out on that

(shame I hardly ever get it other than virtually these days, the Piedmontese wines are just NOT imported to the US at all, except at such a huge premium its not worth even thinking about. I have one or two left in my stash though)

Wrong tense. Encryption is no longer classified as a munition under ITAR, thanks to things like the RSA t-shirt and other pranks that demonstrated just how daft an idea it was.

A couple of points, there is demand for PG land, the trouble with PG land is that it can border mature land making PG status meaningless, I have experienced this. Forming a PG continent really is a no brainer if you want to give people a more predictable PG experience.

Secondly, kids should not be here at all, not even on PG land. Linden Lab have repeatedly stated that the aims of this policy are not about kids.

Even then, though it is still in the context of a specific play, and I doubt that anyone under age was allowed to play the part of the victim. I know there was a production of Titus here a couple years ago too, but did not have a chance to catch it, so not sure how graphic it was.

They have said the aim is not to merge the grids, but did they say it was not about kids? Did they give a clear answer as to the reasoning behind all this anywhere at all?

Not the what, but the why?