Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Geographical Separation of Adult Content

I'm wondering whether it is time for another in world protest outside the LL's virtual offices.

However, I'm not sure how effective it will be, and I'm not sure that those who thought up this plan have ever logged onto SL. Why do I think this - because the plan is predicted on the idea that one SL region is interchangable to anothe SL region and moving builds between regions is trivial.

If they had logged onto SL, they would realise that SL is immersive - that people chose places based on the terrain features, surrounding features (such as waterfront, mountains etc.), that people become attached to places in SL (I still sometimes go back to the sim where I purchased my first land) etc.

If they had ever tried building in SL, they would realise just how nerve-rackng moving a complex buiild to a different location within the same sim was, let alone moving things between sims.

True, there will be some "sex-club-in-a-box" ventures on land purely purchased on price which will transfer to the new location without problem. However, you only have to read this thread to find tales of people who have put time, money and care into carefully choosing a location and building something imaginative (even if not to everyones taste).

Ironically, it will be the "sex-club-in-a-box" ventures which will move into the new adult content, whilst the those behind the more imaginative and creative ventures are much more likely to decide it is not worth the hassle and heartache and leave SL.

Matthew

OMFG... ROFLMFAO!!!!!

my sides hurt now, thanks

If that which is considered explicit is only 2-4% of content then why create an adult continent, giving the media the impression that such adult content is so large and so approved of and loved by SL that it merits it own content whilst education, charity, language opportunities, information resources and even disabled support (other than for romance/erotic possibilities) do not merit their own continent?

Is this a corporate image you at SL think will benefit your bottom line or media profile?

Creating mainland with aesthetic constraints to building insteading of zoning existing mainland has been suggested in the past by sl.

A sensible approach would be to set up a new continent with quite strict guidelines, such as would be found in a conservative office or university facility. The potential embarrasment of bored executives at an in-sl meeting on mainland camming into peoples private homes at just the wrong moment would be removed without upsetting exisiting residents, and possibly delighting many middle aged residents such as myself (I will be able hop on an alt and show my retirement aged parent SL at last).

I suspect many RL businesses would welcome being able to move to mainland (With infrastructure in place such as built roads) in order to gather passing unique traffic rather than relying almost entirely on search or inworld link schemes for in world generated traffic as at present a private island is the only way to avoid the camming in at the wrong moment oopsies. The current proposal would not remove that oopsie problem.

If the concern is to grab some headlines. The media could be grabbed by the sex headline still "SL abandons porn island plan in favour of Information/Communication/office/fashion continent". Loving detail about interactive roman bath house murals could be provided inthe press releases when describing the proposed porn continent that had to be abandoned. Rich descriptions of disabled married couples enjoying a full marriage again with SLs help. Whatever you like.

If a conservative element must appealled to "Residents did not feel that explicit content merited its own continent." If a liberal element must be appealed to "preserving diversity and artistic and creative freedoms within SL while providing those wishing to operate in an environment suited to an office /adult educational institution/communications industry/charity (take your pick) environment" why not appeal to both?

Cash wise I think this would be a far more sensible move. You could get the word about the "internet is for porn" out at the same time as achieving the pristine and aesthetic environment required for the majority of business (ie. who do not take the visiting execs to topless bars). Clients both ways.
The current proposal as it stands will not create a safe business environment. A continent decicated to something worthy of a continent, and that would enhance SLs reputation, would.

For an easy quick fix if you absolutely HAVE to do something about explicit material on the mainland -without the embarrsasment of giving some elements of society the false impression that SLs priorities are all about encouraging the explicit by creating a continent just for it -you could also ammend community standards to "ask" that very very explicit content should be housed at 300m or above, just like island estates sometimes do.

your laugh pleases this young warrior, we shall erect large temples in pornark for you my freind

if it come down to another inworld protest, i'll be there

Only that solution (whilst I can quite see LL trying it), wouldn't avoid the negativity. The danger is not that Mr Pervert might rezz and use an adult object in front of a child, it is that Mr Pervert might talk to the child online and gain their confidence (perhaps pretend to be a child only interested in PG objects and locations themselves), and eventually try to arrange a RL meeting with said child.

No system for filtering content and locations is going to prevent that. The solution to that is to restrict children to an area of the grid that the only adults there are "screened" in some manner (i.e. like the teengrid).

Matthew

Well i thought SL was only for adults , if need to proof age , must to do when the person joing the SL . And if everybody there supposedly are adults , whats the problem ? Every sim say if its adult content or not , maybe the ppl dont *read* what say , but why make the things so hard for the owners of the sims ? Gosh the life is being every day more and more hard there . Some ppl looks like seek for a nun place , if they want , go at one church . Sexy clothes are noting abt *sex* . In the RL ppl use sexy clothes and dont have discrimination . The freedom if being everyday lost , bc some ppl complain , well , looks like its all they know to do . Mature sim is adult sim , is it so hard to understand ? Well for me its hard to understand changes that i cant see its needed . Sorry but i dont have more words here .

I own a very large amount of land in a PG sim called Celerio.

Why did I pick PG land? Because it was a section of mainland not blighted by bling, sex clubs, ad farms and violence. It was and still is a very natural area which draws artists and those who enjoy landscaping and 90% of my neighbors are people I adore living with. We all co-operate to keep Celerio clean and pleasant. There are times when it is a daily struggle.

Now before I get jumped on as being for this attrocious mess of a change, let me say that I am an adult and I do enjoy adult activities. I do go to strip clubs. I do go to play swordfighting. I have been to furry "yiff" clubs. I do own a sex bed and several other menu driven furnishings for sexual activity. But I don't care for any of this to be a part of my public home. I don't wish a bloodsport area next door. I don't want rape poseballs in the bushes of my neighbors garden. I don't want to see avatars walking around with bits hanging out in my backyard.

Lindens, this is WHY I have a PG sim as my mainland home. This is why my skybox where I have a beautiful romantic bedroom set is so far up in the sky that there is nothing around it and no chance for anyone to "accidentily" peek in. Because I want my experience to be PG around my home and I'd rather my intimate activities be carried out in places no one would look.

So this is why this particular idea offends me greatly. You say it does not include private homes but the TOS and guidelines say otherwise. I have no wish to ever live on an adult sim. I don't like fetishes, kinks and blantant sex and violence in my face in the place I go to relax or entertain friends. Right now, I practice tolerance and common sense. Celerio borders a mature sim. If I cam over there and see something I don't like, whose fault is that? It's mine for being nosy because the folks over there are perfectly within their rights to behave that way.

By this ruling, my sex bed says I could be dragged to an adult sim. Even though it's not public. Even though it is set to me and mine only and will kick anyone else off. The fact I change clothes, adjust attachments and do other things that make my avatar naked in her home - does this also mean I have to move? Even though I've always been a very private person about my own sexual and adult activities on my own property and worked my tail off to create an example of this PG paradise LL seems to want? Even though I've made it well known my land is child avatar safe because all the "naughty" stuff is 2000+ feet up in a skybox that no one should be in unless invited?

Ban lines are ugly. I feel an adult sim would also be ugly, at least for me. You could take your grandmother to Meowth Manor but NOT to my skybox. Why should I be punished? Why should my neighbors be punished? We don't want to move. What about things that offend me and that I never want to see? Goreans offend me to my core but I wouldn't want you to chase them off the grid.

And here's the bottom line because none of us are stupid. We know where this is leading. I don't want the teen grid here. I don't want 13 year olds on Second Life. I am 35 years old, I want a social network for adults. I'm aware kids are lying to get in, however in doing so, they are forced to act like adults. I don't mind child avatars. I know an adult is behind those keys and no RL parent is going to come screeching to the rescue if precious sees a pixel boob. What is wrong with a world for adults? Aren't we the ones pumping thousands of dollars into SL anyhow?

You'd be wise to reconsider this or to make exceptions now. All my alts are age verified. I'd suggest you let those of us who are already age verified stay that way. Not everyone has a credit card either. I know it was years before I did and even so, I use Paypal as my payment method because quite frankly, the LL credit card servers are unstable. I'd also advise you not hire a third party verification service because most of those require you to buy a "pass" per month to remain verified, usually $19.99. Considering the places I do PG roleplay at will also have to go "adult" because of violence and a lot of non-sexual clubs as well, folks like me will be forced to either buy these passes or kiss SL goodbye.

At this point, I'd kiss SL goodbye and take all my friends with me. I don't have that kind of money and if I can't roleplay, go to clubs or do anything that makes SL a great world to live in then I'd rather move on. Think seriously about this, LL, do we want a repeat of the Jessie war or the Tax Revolt?

please tell us merging the teen grid is not an option. The idea of even one child killed in rl due to meeting an unscreened adult SL is unthinkable. Please reassure us that merging is not being considered. Please give an ironclad promise that you will never delibrately expose children to those risks, no matter how " general content" sl becomes.

Originally Posted by Aeon Snook

How about those of us in the "grey zone" (let's call them NINJAS-4-FUN with a VENGENCE), who hope to avoid any future scorn of Big Brother/vigilant neighbourhood watch complaints?

Will we be given a choice to relocate at no cost also..?





I honestly hope that LL won’t let it come to that.

But I can't help getting this mental "banner ad" running through my mind, where the commendable "Plant a Tree" effort is replaced by a popular movement to plant a forest of something else entirely.

Can you envisage the commission retail potential of certain erect shapes brought to you by The “Public Eviction Nurture Information Society”..?!?

It would be absolutely awful, and hence, no doubt viable..?

Children are more at risk from other children than they are adults. To me, it is unthinkable that a parent cannot share the same world as their children as a family. We have put them in a "Lord of the Flies" world that is really not optimal for them.

I have been in many worlds that have had adults and teens mixing and it is parents who do not supervise their kids that are the problem. Penalising the parents who DO supervise their kids doesn't seem very fair.

9:Numerical assumptions and exaggerations will be instated for all numerical values. Numbers such as "Like, a Million" and "Fifty Some-Odd" will become the default numerics.

10: A large hut shall be given to an avatar know as "The Man" that can also be raided for epeen increasing loot

11:Epeen will be measured with an actual meter that exists as a level of how awesome we are and are able to buy more amazing stuff with higher e-peen rating.

12:a statue of Dildor god of lust, shall be erected in the port of Jizzgar, it will dipict the founding of ursula, and the violent slaying and beheading of the native wildlife.

13: furries shall be granted two seats in the congress of pornark, and given a large city to be named Yiffberg, and a second city of new yiffburg shall be set up for the furs that dont want to be part of the popular crowd

14: all weres waldo books will considered illegall unless first modified to circle waldo on every page, this will be to comemerate our long time voyear heritage by showing that we know where everyone is, and where they sleep at night, but more importantly, where they shower

and finally..

15: mosaic, blured, or black square sencoring shall be ban, those using it will be punished by horizontal hanging (having a noose tied around their neck and shot from a cannon)

It also penalizes the kids by sheltering way too much, making them unprepared for adult life. And as you say, it allows lazy parents to shift supervision of their kids onto outsiders. It is SO much easier to blame others then, rather than take responsibility for what kids see or do not see.

But again, I strongly doubt this move has anything to do with a possible merge of Teen into main SL (though that may happen, who knows).

I think LL are treading a knife edge with this policy. On one side they could define adult content so liberally that there is no discernable change and presumably the problem remains. On the other side they could make a more strict definition and rip to much out of the mature sims.

I also see a risk in Adult and PG rated sims becoming the standard and Mature stuck in some no mans land in between. On my piece of mainland I keep it PG (I think) but I did purposely buy Mature rated, just in case. It seems quite possible that people that would have bought Mature rated will now choose Adult rated. Not because they intend to spend all their time in hardcore action, but because they want the least restrictions and no risk.

OMG ppl , kids in the sl ? wtf ? i like adult ppl to talk , to be free to have my own thoughts there , not to take care if have kids around and its not appropriate , what i want to say . I dont care for what ppl do inside their homes , i dont cam around , looking insade place because i like my privacy , so i respect others , but ( always have one but) most of the ppl there dont know what this word means , and yes , they go at 2.000m to look your house . They did to me and will always does , bc they think in the sl dont need to respect , and its not a place for privacy too . Well if changes come , and make the life worse there , SL will have my good bye . And one bed with sexgen dont mean someone is perv , because they sexual life is private . The nosy ppl would be sent to a special sim , so they dont go to see what they dont want , even puting their nose inside our homes .

Let the parent have the ability to set up a "child" agent (not the same as a child avatar) linked to their own main account.

(this means multiple agents under one account rather than one account per agent)

"child" agent with settings under the parent not allowed to leave PG areas - the parent can declare the alt as the account of their child.

Problem solved. Kid cant leave PG areas.

LL just needs to get off their duff and enforce PG rules to the letter.

Allowing a so-called "moral" group of people to dictate what will be called, for now, Adult, rather than Mature, is a lead for them to "insist" that the initial descriptions weren't good enough and will take LL down the slippery slope to non-relevance in a short while; effectively closing SL due to slow and diminishing cash flow. The truth is that teens and children who wish to know what they might be missing and who are smart enough to exchange information with one another get past any kind of age verification utility. So , just allow the parents to allow the SL Teen Grid and block the SL Adult Grid if they want to protect their children . The teen grid has been sorely lacking in marketing, especially to young people oriented businesses such as Disney, Hasbro, Mattel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and etc., etc., to get involved in creating content for it. Moving it to the maingrid won't change that. As for newcomers being turned off by the amount of random "mature" or "adult" content they see as they travel inworld on the maingrid (not estates, as they are already tagged PG or Mature); let them wear a tag that would stop them from entering "mature" or "adult" tagged content parcels. Offer it as an option on the sign-in screen: Check one - I want to access __PG only areas, __ PG and Mature areas, __ PG, Mature, and Adult areas. Also , don't move or force businesses/homes to relocate to a different continent just for their different view or take on sexuality-that smacks of banishment/ostrasizing, and besides, some businesses are naturally parasitic in nature; they require customers coming for one reason to also see them and then make an impulse buy(which includes the Mature and Adult ones). Eventually , the slippery slope will take you to having no exposed body forms or sexual looking devices in your storefronts and a label outside the door declaring your store to be a Mature or Adult store. :0

THAT should be the BIIGEST gripe anybody has about this ghettoization of adult content. those whohave to move have to moVE. it took a month to build th last two timesihad to move. i had a nice river plot from prok neva that would be unduplictable on a continent or an island.


i mean LL acts as if they had could move the stuff for people. but they dont care and it is decided. it is the BIG move tha LL is taking because all theother things ar e in place already. pickin nits between mature and adult .


adding features that already exist like calling a sim mature or pg. flagging a sim adult accepts the stimga to sex that cowards worried about their corporate image attach to sex. it gives lie to the whole open space mantra. a safe mode in seacrh (already exists ) and is not a bad thing. requiring payment info used is notthe end of the world (though an intrusion ) becuse a lot have that already.

moving is what revealsthe lie. after yappin with my pal headofthe bibmo cheerleaders wer are gonna form a group to protest fight etc. round up ala usueal sex suspects onna grid and fight the good fight.

There must be an easier way to do all this without annoying everyone.

Simply have content creators and land owners set adult objects and land to adult.

When someone logs in give them a choice to block out any objects with an "adult" tag in there viewer, just turn it gray or something and stop them from entering parcels of land marked "adult"

Then, create a new mainland for no adult content and leave everything else as it is.

Please remember that people purchased land in Mature sims for a reason, and could have purchased PG but didn't.

Let residents sort this out. Let content creators and G rated themed places take root in the new nonadult mainlaind and leave everyone else alone.

Its probably a bad idea to annoy or cause confusion for your customers especially in this economic climate where discretionary spending is limited.

Exactly - and I think this is what is at the very core of this protest. LL hasn't exactly officially said that the grids are merging, but we all see the writing on the wall - there can be no other reason for this insane proposal.

Right now, the main grid is adult-only. There are precious few places on the Internet where adults can gather and just be themselves without worrying if anyone underage is present (and if there are, it's a relatively simple matter to make them go away permanently). On the other hand, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of places where teens can gather and - well, be teens. You won't find many adults in such places because, quite frankly, we don't want to have to deal with teen drama.

This presently puts Second Life in a unique position. It is currently the ONLY place online where adults can gather, be themselves, or even let out their inner child - or sit and discuss tax exemptions if they so desire. If teens are allowed into the main grid, then this unique position goes away, and SL will simply be another IMVU or any of the other 3-D Myspaces infesting the webs. In short, SL will completely lose its identity, and a large number of adults would simply leave, as their ultimate reason for being in SL in the first place will go away.

Yes, adults can simply migrate to the new red-light district in order to avoid the teens, but - wouldn't this completely negate the very argument LL is trying to foist on us for creating the red-light district in the first place?

I'm sorry to say this Jeska, but this example is for me is shocking, because of LL's short sightedness...

I think, that that first action-role-play group would be governed by mature adults. And that they will be WISE enough to mark their land/sim as such, giving warning signs and so on. And probably made off limits to everyone not in their group.

So, lets break this down.
1. To get to KILL'EM'ALL you'd first have to explicitely LOOK for it. Using search (filtering mature/adult content)... Read group description, sign up, get accepted and so on. Can or may someon be offended by it? No. It's their choice to look for this group themselves. Again, an mature/adult decision.

2. Someone ran accidentily into the sim/land. Noticed the block (group access), read signs, getting notecards and so on and STILL presses on to see what's inside... Should this person be offended? Imho, NO. It's his/her own doing that got them there and ignoring all the signs and warnings. The groupowners and leaders should be offended by this trespasser!

So WHY is there a reason to move this group to some obfuscated Adult geographical situation? I don't see it.

As people have said before, the solution is too easy:
1. Set up a new geographical region that does not need verification but if you want to leave you will have to understand, sign and age verify that you enter the 'real' mature SL (which CAN contain ADULT content at anytime, anywhere).

2. I'd like to add the following. Allow tags to be on land/sims that give some clarification about the content. Here in the Netherlands, it's done as well and it seems to work well.

See for example icons at http://www.kijkwijzer.nl/pagina.php?id=2
Disregarding the age icons, since SL is a 18+ environment (outside the region as specified in my #1 point), there are clear representations for:
- violence (that KILL'EM'ALL group)
- fear/horror (Halloween area's)
- sex/porn (obvious)
- discrimination (Can happen for example in Gorean Sims; or even Star wars as the imperials do not like non-humans )
- drugs/alcohol usage (obviously in bars, disco's roleplay, or even scientific explanations)
- swearing (probably going on beyond the F*-word, since it looks to me every American spews that one in about every sentence just once)...

Have these tags/icons on land and have people in their profile to be able to setup some auto-confirmation. So everytime they enter a parcel a check can be made against their profile. If an area is marked to display certain behaviour a messagebox can be shown which must be accepted before the resident can continue. For me, I'd turn them all on since I'm adult and mature enough to decide when something is not my thing, I can just TP out.

This would be imho a much more simple solution than to start mass moves of residents into a Linden specified ghetto (where's the freedom of choice in there?)

I think in both cases it would be the other way around: your neighbours would have to move (or cease to use those items) and the club will have to as well.

Now ask yourself the question: since the club/estate owners already made good ruling about child avatars, is this move of everyone but you REALLY necessary?

Because LL thinks so...

I get a dejavu here... It is about the same idea of changing some MMO (swg for insiders) for the "new kid crowd" because of the "big bucks"...

See what SOE did to the game, their own name and status...
One can only hope LL gets to their senses before it's too late.

/me wonders what the icon for THIS would look like...

Follow the link I gave
It's there