Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Geographical Separation of Adult Content

As owner of a mixed use Mainland Sim, I am very concerned about this! Does "casually encounter" include cameraing into an enclosed building? How about around a 10M wall?
If ppl at my club are sometimes scantilly dressed or even naked, will someone flying by be offended?
If those things are true, will I have to move my home and mall, attached to the club, to a "red light district" --- seems extreme! and who pays?????
This looks like another gold mine for the land barrons and a diminishment of quality of life in SL.
I agree with others who say "create a prissy continent" and let the rest of us get on with our Second lives.

Based on the widespread and random allocation of adult/mature/whatever you want to call it content within the current grid, I have to agree with the other posters here who have proposed creating a shiny new "PG-rated" landmass and starting off all new account holders there, plus tossing in anyone who is not currently age verified, and marketing that as a place to go if you're a user who doesn't want to accidentally TP into a sex shop or strip club. Rather than poke holes in the existing infrastructure and piecemeal something together by pulling current content out ... it seems like an extensive undertaking to go through the grid and try to "round up" all the adult providers and move them to a new restricted area. From a logistics & project management perspective it seems less resource-intensive & cleaner to do it the other way 'round.

It probably also easier to define specific things that are "PG" rated then to try to nail down what is Mature vs. Adult - internet providers have been trying (and failing) to define that adequately for decades and I can't see how even the brightest stars at Linden Labs will be able to succeed where no one else has. Put yo' thing down, flip it, and reverse it!

so if i want a sexbed in my skybox i need to move to another region?

/me runs off to sell everything before it´s completely worthless

So, basically, the entire mainland is being forcibly reclassified as "PG".
Create a new "PG mainland" for people who don't want to be exposed to anything you wouldn't see from Disney to move to instead.

Or alternatively, implement this:

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-205

Are you seriously suggesting that out of 80,000 concurrent users of SL, 60,000 are involved in, sell or display sexually explicit and/or extremely violent content on their parcels?

NM - found my answer

I'd like to agree with the sentiment that this is kind of backwards. If we're worrying about protecting the delicate sensibilities of noobs, teens, or the educational and corporate world, then I think those people should be the ones who need to have their own continent to explore until they get around to being PIOF or age-verified.

Also, everything I have read about the criteria for adult vs. mature does not boil down to the very simple idea of "we are only talking about extreme sexual or extreme violent content." From the FAQ:

What are "Adult" Regions, Groups, Events and Classifieds?
Any publicly accessible Region must be designated "Adult" and therefore require Adult validation if it advertises, makes available, references, or displays the following:

* Representations of explicit sexual conduct or genitalia, whether or not photo-realistic ("sexual conduct" will be defined inclusively, to include all erotic themes)

-- This includes all sex clubs, of course, dungeons, etc., strip clubs, escorting, etc., plus the 'whether or not photo-realistic' would seem to include skin stores and stores that sell genitalia add-ons.

* Representations of intense violence depicting death, torture, dismemberment or other severe bodily harm

-- This includes most RP sims that employ any kind of combat.

* Photo-realistic nudity

-- This would include skin stores.

* Sexually themed spaces (whether indoors or outdoors)

-- Leaving this open to include 'all erotic themes' makes it a pretty broad brush.

I'm not against keeping up with adult content and making sure it doesn't infringe on others' rights to a pleasant SL experience. As a matter of fact, I'm all for it. I think ad farms and billboards with naked ladies on them and sex clubs who build next to people's private residences are inconsiderate, but I also think they could be dealt with in an ongoing manner on a case by case basis.

I just think since in SL, technically EVERYTHING is publicly accessible, that means someone's sex bed is accessible, someone's music stream with sexually explicit lyrics is accessible, someone's profile that includes links to any adult content themed locations they frequent can become a tool for an AR, and this shouldn't be a matter where some people are forced to wear the scarlet letter because of how they choose to enjoy their 18+ SL experience.

I am a bit worried about the outcome of your planned changes...since no one solution is going to please the majority of the residents of SL...you have often lauded us for our creativity...and that creativity carries over from our creations...to the ways we do business.

I personally own 98% of a mainland sim...I have a dozen businesses on it...some are adult themed, like theaters, and a club...some are strictly PG themed, like my gadget shop...some are a combination...how will the decision be made to determine where my sim will end up? Or will they split the sim in half and recombine it with another?...if so, what about the thousands of landmarks I have out there to bring people to my various shops?

Because half of my businesses are adult oriented, will I have to move half of my land holdings to another continent? Will I have to move my builds?...what about combined builds where I have PG products on the first floor..and an adult oriented business on the second floor?...who will cover my loss of business during the move...?..or if because half of businesses are adult oriented will my entire sim be moved?...what about those few landowners in the sim that dont wish to move? Will they be forced to move along with me, because I am the majority landowner?

What about my loss of business I will incurr if I am forced to move to a new continent...and because few people will want to participate in age verification, my business suffers from it. It has been shown dramatically, over a year ago, that people will leave SL enmass rather than submit their information to a third party company that has a history of reselling information.

More important questions...WHY merge the teen grid at all...why force people that joined SL strictly BECAUSE it was an adult platform..where we could be assured we would be interacting with other adults...to now interact with children? The entire appeal of SL is that you can get AWAY from the kids for a while.

If you want to provide an environment where parents can interact with their kids...where educators can reach teens...why not put some age verification controls on the current teen grid, rebrand it as the "Family Grid"...allow age verified adults with teen family members to enter there...allow verified educators to enter...allow those business people that are age verified to enter there...and keep the adult grid the way it is...This should be considered seriously...as a TEST to see if SL residents really wish to interact with teens...if you tested your idea that everyone wants to be on a single grid with this methodology...you could gauge whether there were mass numbers of adults that wanted access to a "family" grid, without making any irreversible changes to the main grid. If you see that in six months, there has been a mass exodus to the family grid, and that hours in world are dropping dramatically on the main grid...then you will have some validation that it is a good idea. But I think you will see that some business people will want to establish shops and stores there...educators will go there...some parents...but the vast majority of residents will remain happily separate.

Right now, the idea of joining the grids is merely an untested concept...that may very well boomarang on LL as some of the other shortsighted concepts you have tried in the past have...

Additionally, there is the issue with adult predators being allowed to intermingle with children, many social interaction networks...facebook, myspace have seen what happens when adults are allowed to interact with children in an unsupervised environment...and dont think that age verification will solve that issue...predators are experienced at using subterfuge to obfuscate their presence on the internet...there are elaborate IP spoofing programs, mac address spoofers...as well as entire lists of stolen identity SS cards, that will allow a REAL predator to pretend to be anyone they wish.

Why in the world would you think about joining children with adults...purposely creating an environment that can be gamed to allow predatory behavior? I would guess that places that currently have a mixed customer base, and are daily taking hits in the papers, and spending huge sums of money to try to keep predators OUT of their systems, would love to have age separated sites. Now you are just creating another one...

Do you think that there is a great deal of money to be made from teens?..that they have a ton of disposable income they just cant wait to toss into the LL coffers?...If that is the case, why aren't they doing it over on the teen grid? Do you think that families want to sit in different rooms of their own house and interact across an internet link?...if so, there is already a place for them to do that...it's called a "living room"..most houses have them...and they are 3d too...hell, you don't even need a computer to use them...

Temporal Mitra

Estates are already segregated.

Think of the LACK of complaints and ill will you would generate if you created that new continent as "G" rated, let business who want to cater to that set up new shops in that new content regulated space, and let the residents migrate where they will, all without forcing anyone to migrate or worry about their existing business models.

Flag the rest of the grid as PG, M and Adult (I am all for the 3rd rating - how about a warning during TP - entering Mature or Adult Content Area), force age verification for access to any of it, and let the residents drive things as they already are.

Much easier to implement, much easier to maintain, much easier to enforce, and much easier to market. Win Win. Your current idea? Lose Lose. OpenSim is looking better and better and better to many of us.

Bravo for saying it better than I did! Give people a new, regulated, content-restricted area to start in, and stay in if they so choose; let them [age-verified] venture out into the wider, less restricted world when they feel ready. They have a place they can come back to if the rest of SL isn't their bag of chips, and people who want to get away from content they don't feel is pleasant or appropriate, have a place they can move to and live, work, socialize, etc. I should think from a purely resource perspective, LL can better monitor a single continent to stay "PG" (especially if the users living there are on board with it, they'll be self-policing!) rather than crawl the grid looking for 'adult content' to pull out and restrict.

I don't see this text in the FAQ at .

This would seem to include every avatar that has a non "ken/barbie" skin.

And avatars.

Welcome to panoptic surveillance in your bedroom.

Just to add my vote on this thread too:

If you want to CREATE an area free of "Adult" activities, please CREATE a NEW Family-Friendly Continent. Don't forcibly relocate long-established people and their activities.

We can't have kids in a PG parcel "camera-ing" into the Mature parcel next door. So I'm assuming that this will be stopped at some point too ?
Some kind of restriction put on camera movement based on the known age status of the AV?
(Has LL the technology to do this in place? )

But this will considerably reduce the emmersive experience for teens.

Any alternative cannot work - unless teens are restricted to a PG ONLY REGION.

I can only see one way to make "Geographical seperation of Adult Content" work... That is to create a brand new "G-Rated Continent" for those who do not wish to be exposed to the adult content that already exists *all over the Mainland*. Pick ANY geographicly contiguous chunk of mainland today, and I defy you to find a sngle sim that is 100% G-rated for everything within camming distance.

If you mandate that any given Mainland continent will henceforth be devoid of Adult ontent, you'd betterbe ready to pay 100% of all relocation costs, including providing land of equal or better quality for those you are forcing to move.

DO NOT force the adult content to move! You will lose a HUGE percentage of members!

Rather, create a G-Rated continent, and those who never wish to deal with Adult Content can isolate themselves happily there.

By the way, if my land wasn't already on a Private Island with highly restricted access, I'd be selling every parcel and prim I have right now... Because land that is potentially going to be claimed as G-rated by "Emenant domain" won't be worth a single L$ for the whole parcel.

From what I'm reading, it does seem like the new continent is only for the most extreme sexually-oriented or violent businesses or activities. I'm fine with that. Frankly, "extreme" in SL is pretty damn extreme, and generally, no, people don't want to move into an area with your supersexrapevorewhatever club smack in the middle of their sim, sorry.

I have a hard time believing that the majority of SL users want to be able to find hard core sex play wherever they go, and the people that want content that doesn't involve that should be restricted. Blondin said sex beds in your own house are fine - just like you can have sex in your own house but if you're gonna dance naked on tables down at the bar and advertise it, you better have a permit from the city.


A word about all these ghetto/Australia comments - man, have some perspective. Australia was a far-away continent that took weeks to reach - this new continent in SL is going to be exactly 1 teleport away, just like everything else is. Sorry random people aren't going to be able to stumble across your sex club anymore, but maybe they'll end up sticking around Second Life in general for longer if they don't. Ghetto? Please - sex in SL is a sizeable portion of the economy, I have a feeling these regions will be plenty well occupied.

Argent, I guess I found that here:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010

I just increased the priority of http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-205 to critical, I hope y'all can get this or something comparable implemented before people start getting ARed for "what they do on their property".

I think we should ban attached prims, because people make guns and penises and if we just banned that then people would be less tempted toward sex and violence.

This would eliminate hair, prim clothing like belts and swords, every tool and HUD in existance, and all furry avatars. This will not work.

I will bet that 75% of *land owners* have adult content of some type!

Well we're guessing at the stats but adult content is widespread.

People asking for the reverse of this plan - to make a G rated area and shove everyone in there while leaving the rest of SL as it currently stands alone and open for everything - apparently have an overinflated concept of the level of hard core sex/violence as a percentage of the economy. The VAST majority of SL is pretty tame, especially when the majority of the stuff that IS out there comprises of someone's sex toys in their bedroom (which as Blondin said, is perfectly fine). You want everyone that doesn't want to move in next to a hard core sex club to have to be the ones to be restricted? Sorry, I don't think anyone's speaking from a place where the numbers back them up on that.

There seems to be this idea that SL is going to turn into a kindergarten while everyone of adult age is getting shoehorned into their own continent. I'm reading this more as SL will stay the same except for Rapy McRaperton's Sex Play Club on the mainland heads to a continent where people are looking for that sort of thing (and sorry, even if you love that stuff, you probably don't love that stuff 24/7 to the exclusion of everything else).

And finally for pete's sake no one's reading the fact that your own sex beds in your house are not going to get you banished to the new continent, according to Blondin.

**irony**

If their objective is to keep children from seeing the odd weewee (wii?), almost every home in mainland will have to be abandoned. And the kids will get to wander empty malls and void sims with nothing upon them because the few who are still inworld will be living in Jizztown.

Far easier is to just keep kids and newbies in a G rated continent until they age verify and can enter the rest of the grid. This... this is putting the cart before the horse. And Mr. Horse doesn't like that a bit.