Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Geographical Separation of Adult Content

Ceera - lots of good questions. I'll try to tackle the ones I have answers to, with the caveat that we're still in discussion phase so we won't have answers for everything yet!



As stated in the blog, estate owners with Adult content on their land will be required to flag their content; but they will not be required to move themselves to the Adult Continent. Estate owners also have various estate level tools which can help to control access to their land. I'll also be sure to take this particular use case back to our team as we continue to work on this issue.



Part of this upcoming plan is to allow those who do not wish to see “Adult” results in search will be able to filter them out. This should work to help prevent the "accidental teleport" into an undesired location that can occur now. Being verified as an adult does not require that all of your activities in Second Life are adult-oriented.

So, the Lindens move in armed with the almighty banhammer, and round up all the adult content merchants and forcibly relocate them to... what?

Let's say you are currently a merchant in the adult section of an active, well-traveled mall. You get good sales there. Then you're forced to move to the Pornoland Mall that no one has ever heard of, and no one among your current customers knows how to get to. Sales go into the toilet. Maybe they will rebound, eventually. Or maybe the customers that were happy to come to your sunny beach-front store where you sold skins with tan lines and anatomically correct details and simple prim nipples won't want to be seen shopping in a mall where the vendors on either side of you are selling snuff-porn props and hermaphrodite dongs a foot long.

Or you have a home on the Mainland, and in the basement you have a "Playroom" for you and your friends, that includes a sex bed and a few more kinky adult props. It isn't an "Adult Business", you don't advertize, but it's the same selection of props that the bordello down the street uses with their SL courtesans. Will your home be forced to move?

I used to live, with friends, on a 1/3 sim parcel in the Magenta sim, which is rated Mature. Prime waterfront land. We had at least 4 areas set up that would, by any measure, be considered kinky and sexually extreme. But all for our own use - not a business or public access. In fact, we had the ban lines up to prevent nearby noobs from walking into our bedrooms and asking if they could "join in"!. But there is NO WAY to prevent some easily-offended jerk in the next sim over from camming into those spaces, no matter how high the skybox or how well-concealed the basement. Wouldn't someone in a circumstance like that be forced to move or delete content? Will someone in that case get a new 1/3 sim piece of prime waterfront as an even trade? Or will they take a beating on selling land that most would now consider worthless, because no adult activities are permitted there?

Treat all content as Adult and then flag the non-Adult stuff. that way the squeamish can just see the non-adult stuff. Why should we have to change?

So, on my residential sims that have Goreans who like to act out or BDSM couples who play (or whatever crazy thing those guys do) then I have two choices. Lock the sim down so it is only accessible to verified accounts, i.e. a tiny minority of people. Or I can forcibly evict everyone who is naked in public or performing "extreme violence".

This is going to be a massive upheaval that will tear the grid apart for months, maybe a year or more.

I run fermi sandbox, and while we have no nudity in the rules, how do you manage that, you don't actually have control of the content of the people there building. and many of them build up in skyboxes, which leads to some questions.

Does that mean we have to check every object?
Are we the police?
Will there be some sort of control to prevent people from adult content?

Arthur Fermi

Hmmm. No more Casinos, No Sex, possiblly no weapons, no role playing... Getting more and more lame... Now just why am I on SL anyway?

P.S. from Linden Labs business perspective this is a quite understandable move. For business reasons, I showed executives from my corporation around. Bottom line: when they stumbled across a rubbery 10m high phallus, it was game over for interest in the environment. People snigger when I tell them I have a small business in Second Life, for most non-involved people the first association it triggers is with sex. I am not personally offended by adult material, but I fully understand why Walmart does not display pornography by the cash registers.

Indeed, which is another reason why the opposite approach of creating a G-Rated continent is much more appealing.

Jeska...if you read this blog...you will see that cyn linden has already defined what "constitutes adult content, in line with our Community Standards."

Cyn said "explicitly sexual or extremely violent content".

of course, your own published FAQ on the matter seems to NOT be what Cyn stated at all, in that it says:

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)
* Representations of intense violence depicting death, torture, dismemberment or other severe bodily harm
* Photo-realistic nudity
* Sexually themed spaces (whether indoors or outdoors

and of course the real kicker is that last one..."sexually themed spaces"..that can mean anything from a sexbed to a skin store...depending upon which linden lab employee is the one judging it...and we were just shown above that there is a HUGE variation in what LL employees consider to be adult...even in defiance of LL's own published criteria.

I see a lot of suggestions here for a new continent that is strictly PG and keeping everyone there that is not age verified...that is a bad idea for several reasons...

First...it was proved undeniably in 2007 that sl residents will NOT age verify...not unless it is done in house, you try to farm it out to a third party company...that has a reputation for reselling private information...and no one will do it...

Secondly, the amount of mainland land is already at a saturation point...meaning you have more land than you have residents that are willing to buy it...why do you think the map has all those pretty yellow spots on it?...Creating a strictly PC continent would push it well past the current point...and land would be valueless...so anyone that has invested in it, would lose that investment...

Lastly, if you make a PG continent...to keep all the teens there...because you dont need any kind of age or identity verification to be there...like potentially the rest of the mainland...then you have basically made a place where all the teens are...and predators and pedophiles can enter with no ID at all...you've helped scum like this by keeping all the kids corralled there...making it easy to find them.

I suggested earlier that 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, like the current LL propaganda is trying to feed us

If LL tested the 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.

As for myself..I have been pondering further...and knowing as I do that LL has shown a pattern over the last year or so of making policy decisions based on what they think will most benefit their own bottom line, without regard to how palatable it will be to their customer base, I wonder if there is a another reason for this? LL has lost thousands of islands, and the teir that was attached to them...is this a way to try to force people out of the mainland, to islands?...LL has already made a large issue out of the fact that restrictions on owned island estates will be much less stringent...and with no real enforcement...is this their motivation? Make the mainland an homogenized disney grid, and build their revenue by revitilizing their island sales, which have been pretty much zero for four months?

LL is seriously out of touch with the people that pay the bills for SL...the residents...if you force this on us...you will unfortunately find out just how out of touch you truly are...I have been watching the forums you created to get feedback build up here...and as time passes...I am seeing that the vast majority of residents posting here do NOT want what LL claims we want...

I thought all you folks in San Fran were hedonists... Who would've thought? LOL!!

One question that I thought of...

Ok, let's say I am prouldly labeled the sleaziest guy outside the welcome area, and in my place of business, I sell everything and anything that can be considered extreme adult content and is still within the TOS, but offensive to many many residents. I am flagged as a business that needs to relocate to New Pornville. On the mainland, I currently pay a monthy tier for 1/4 region.

My question is, will I be guranteed the same amount of land in New Pornville as I currently own, basically just moving, or will I have to repurchase land, thus having to compete for it at a premium gouging rate???

And what kind of land will you get.. Say you have mainland protected waterfront with a west view.. And LL offers you something less. Will you be forced to accept it? Methinks you will.. It's LL's game after all.. Their World.. not ours...

/me tangents into asking LL if they're now planning to better-police the welcome areas and HIP.. In terms of resident experience, it seems like those areas are fruit that's hanging much lower.

I think the Lindens are missing a great oppurtunity here. You create your PG only new squeaky clean continent somewhere, and give it some Linden content and maybe even give it double prims, then you set it out for auction for the people that want a plain vanilla SL and you make money hand over first like you did with Nautilus and Bay City.

I thought about that after I posted it, but I didn't even want to go there.

Tempral: I age verified. Not a problem at all. And if they allow Payment-on-File to be the verification also, then the issue goes bye bye.

I would age verify a thousand times before being forced to pack up and move so teenagers with no money can play in my empty parcel. Especially when it's more fair for new people to go into the new continent in the first place. Make the new land G-rated, and I'm cool with that. Take my home at gunpoint (ban threats are the equivalent here) because I (gasp) have a sexbed, and you color me and my deep pockets gone. The same will be true of a lot of people.

As for Cyn's and other linden statements here to the contrary -- Sorry, but no discussion here trumps the TOS. Put down in black and white in the TOS that items in closed noncommercial buildings are not subject to the forced porn-march, or don't bother saying anything about it. We aren't going to fall for the official/unofficial obsfucation this time. Make it formal and clear please -- we deserve that much from you, I think.

For those of us planning on staying in SL for a few months more at least better be careful what we say here... Don't think free speech is a valued commodity at LL... Threats, Griefing, and Bans usually follow anyone who dares to speak up about issues that affect us all.... So, I am outta here. Already getting some negative results from speaking my mind.. Interesting, huh?

Are you planning on duplicating the land form exactly in the new sims and providing an automatic translation of the teleport addresses?

I spent a long time looking for my land and have inhabited it for almost 2 years. It has a waterway through it and steep mountains and gorgeous views. I purchased it at a very large premium over other land because of these features. And these features make my business very attractive to visit.

It has taken many many man-months of time to build my gardens, ballroom and store. They are perfectly tailored to the land shape.

There is no way I can invest that time again now, so in effect, if you cannot give me duplicate land my business will end very quickly.

Also, I have invested thousands of dollars and hours publicizing the location of my business. If people TP and do not end up where they expect, the business will degrade quickly.

I do not understand why you cannot partition adult on a parcel basis and let us continue where we are.

The cost to the sl economy to move will be enormous and will emotionally and financially injure the lives of many many real people.

i own a gallery and wish to know if the new rules will not allow me to display nude artwork within my mainland its on a mature parcel so i am guessing it wont be possible.

The only thing i wanna know is... will people with sexual sims that are forced to relocate have to also rebuild?

Post number 4 pretty much summed up my rant. Go read it.

woohoo 500 posts.

That's exactly the point!!

Most people don't want to go there because it's such a mess and has been for ages..


edit: gratz, Zed! Postbot!!!

I would like to pick up on what Atashi is saying.
Just a thought, wouldn’t it be achievable, like for instance working within three levels,

The teen grid, no discussion in my opinion about that, it should be kept separated from the adult grid at all time for the obvious reasons.

And making it possible to work within the adult grid with an level, where the traditional RL companies do their thing, advertising there RL businesses and services, this including the nonprofit organizations not working with explicit adult content, that are also active in SL.

A sublevel for, the people that consider them self active in diverse fields, so to say, but not in the extreme explorations of their boundaries.

And a level for the rest.
I think this might be more achievable.

I like to believe that everyone behind an avatar has some common sense, like for example someone that is not interested in a certain kind of sexual roleplay should not be looking for it, the same for the to be considered more violent roleplay.
I have to admit, that common sense also implicates that when they look for it, they should not complain from finding it.

Allow me also to give a certain comment on the age verification, it has shown not to work as planned in SL, I’m aware of more than one example outside the traditional SL-merchandising-network, where it doesn’t work either. So I not really see any advantage even to extrapolate from it.

I paid alot of $L for my plot of land

now i am thinking of other ways of providing my artwork

plus its a nice place so ill miss having to give it up

Also, these threads are all from JP, who (no offense, JP!) I've never heard of.

Is he (he?) actually running this or is this proxy posting for Cyn or Jeska or somebody?

Just curious.