Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Account Verification for Accessing Adult Content

Yes it's a tick box, we already have one of those inworld but you're not seriously suggesting people will be able to get around not being able to buy adult content inworld by buying it from XStreet after ticking said box? Surely there's going to be a link.

I agree with this mostly.
There's just 1 thing I'ld like to mention: CC verification is NOT always possible, depending on the bank and the country. Some banks in certain countries provide more strict rules into getting a CC. I for example only managed to apply for one a couple months ago, after being in SL for over 18 months... and I'm 24 and have been employed for over a year with a steady income.

So keep in mind the payment info or CC verification method isn't always an option for everybody across the Atlantic, on top of having intense restrictions of giving personal info.

the only positive way is to have a Linden come visit each and every resident of SL.... they just have to have a way to have proof offered and what I see said here they are doing what is possible, NO system is fool proof

That is a tremendous relief. Thank you for being specific and timely with this response.


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NO.

You may wish it to seem like a "VERY great privilege" but it is not. It is the basics of SL and how things have always worked.

I do not think we should in any way pay for the privilege of setting permissions.

OK, it has been stated time and time again that being able to provide credit card information is NOT sufficient as proof of age. My 13 year old daughter could have a VISA Debit Card in less than an hour, if she wanted or needed one. One of the reasons Linden Lab rammed the abortive Age Verification scheme down our throats was because Linden Lab REFUSED to accept Payment Info On File as sufficient proof of adult status. So, why the sudden 180 degree turn in Policy? Other than the fact that huge segments of your customer base refused to use the Age Verification Provider that you selected, or found it impossible or illegal in their home country for them to do so?

Same goes for becoming a Verified PayPal member. All that takes is linking your PayPal account to a bank account. My 13 year old could have a Verified PayPal account in less than a week.

Taking into account the people I know from my own SL household...

My accounts are all age verified and either Payment Info on file or Payment Info Used. But I live in the USA, and have several credit cards. So it was fairly easy for me.

My SL Partner is a Canadian citizen. Age verification failed for them. They do have Payment Info on file for their main account though, but not for some of their alts.

I have other friends and household members who live in foreign countries and who I know are neither age verified, nor have they any credit cards, nor have they any way to get a PayPal account. Or they have several alts for roleplaying, but can't add payment info to some of them because their perfectly valid payment info isn't accepted for more than a limited number of accounts, and they don't have a pocket full of alternate payment methods.

In short, if my household was on the Mainland, and unlucky enough to be on a continent that LL decides to declare void of all Adult Content, we would have to move, or several of our members would be unable to access their homes. Fortunately, I moved to an adults-only private island some time ago.

It would be invaluable if an individual could create ONE age-verified or payment verified account, and simply link their existing alts tothat one account, without any penalties for the number of accounts they may have. Roleplayers often have more than 5 accounts, and if you tell them to trim it to 5 or less, they WILL leave, in droves.

One can get a prepaid CreditCard from 7/11. Kids can have a credit card in thier own name as a minor. Many parents hand out their credit Card to the kids to keep them quiet. Internet nanny.

So where in all this is the "protection" to stop minors from accessing adult content? Paypal does not verify one's age. It just verifies that you have a bank or creditcard account to send the money from. Many kids get allowance on paypal.

I think it is noble of LindenLab to try and protect us from the kids and the kids from us but there is no solution that really works. We were told by LindenLab that CreditCards can not be used for age verification which was why we had to use Aristotle.

So this is nothing to do with being an adult but getting more users into the payment system.

It seems to me that LL wants to implement age verification because some residents are complaining about adult content. So why not have people 'mark' a box on the account creation page, if they want to be protected?
I seriously find this whole discussion absurd. If I don't want to see/hear/read.... adult content I simply do not visit these regions.
I do not need anyone to decide for me.Why are we being treated as small children?

SL is and always will be a game.
- I do NOT wish to be controlled in a game.
- I do NOT wish to give out personal information about myself :
a) be it via age verification (which does not work for the country I live in),
b) be it via payment info ( I do NOT want to pay annually for a creditcard I do not use otherwise)

Please bear in mind that a lot of SL residents are NOT from the US. We have a strong protection (by law) regarding personal information, furthermore : people from outside US are NOT that narrowminded as people from US !!

Bottom line : if some people cannot stand being confronted with adult content, they should be the ones that are punished and not those that are openminded.
--> so this whole age verification thing should be approached from a different point of view

YES!!!!! I'd LOVE for my alts to share one account! (>_<

But I am quite sure you know plenty of under 16 year olds have credit cards and paypal accounts in Europe so you WILL have to ask for details Europeans are often not even legally allowed to even give to third parties such as SL.

What if we have already done the age verification the first time this subject came up.? Will it still be valid or will we be forced to age verify our accounts again?

Also, if we create adult content on land we own but isn't in this "adult section" of SL then wouldn't we basically be screwed? (Pardon my language)

What I don't exactly understand is the fact that this is an over 18 world. We have a mature button in search that filters out adult content. How about we get someone that actually monitors this & warns those who get around such measures (in search, classifieds, events, etc.)? More rules that make things difficult, confusing, or oppressive to the residents is going to drive some away & cause them to run to different virtual worlds. Not to mention those who are still on the fence about joining SL in the first place.

Also will this be confusing to those who are not as "tech smart" as some? I helped my rl father set up his SL account. Get his preferences straight. Taught him how to use it. How's it going to work for those who don't have the time or knowledge to figure this out when it took them a while to figure out an already rough (on some) interface? Explaining to him that he might have to verify his age again (if we are forced to do it over) isn't going to be fun & I'll end up having to help him with it.

I won't get into those who work in the adult industry, who's lifestyles or rpg depend on adult content. Or how some (you know this is true) are just here for that as is. If you don't like it don't go there. If you don't want to see it then don't. Use the mature button. And as adults...I really think we can take care of what we see ourselves.

It is a shame that in the world we live in that any of this discussion is even necessary. What happened to the concept of parental awareness of their children's (minor's) online activities? This is not of course an issue for Linden Labs to solve however and I'm sure this can be argued for and against ad nauseum.

What is interesting is that anyone expects any of these "safeguards" and "protocols" to be effective. Anyone, minors included, can circumvent any age verification process by a number of means which many have outlined in these discussions. It can be as simple as obtaining valid credentials even if they obtain them through illicit means (you only need mom or dad's drivers license/credit card etc... for 2 minutes and voila!).

I think it is putting the majority of SL's users identities at risk to require personal information for verification especially at a time globally when identification theft is prominent. Global banking institutions information in recent news have been compromised and have subjected thousands to having their lives compromised if not destroyed. My suspicions are that Linden Labs will not have the necessary level of safeguards in place in the months before they roll out these new parameters to effectively protect its residents. I would be interested to know what safeguards will be implemented and what type of staffing will be added to care for keeping up with and thwarting the increased inevitable attempts and electronic attacks of any kind that will come wth this new source of information for those who would do others harm. I think instilling a bit of comfort in your patrons in this regard would go a long way toward acceptance of your new policies.

I personally am against any policy that will potentially compromise my real life identity. I am curious to know...will the revenue gained by Linden Labs with the addition of "non-adult" or "minor" accounts outweigh the revenue loss by those "adults" who are spending their First Life money on your Second Life things, but are not willing to risk that same money by supplying sensitive information? When my Second Life begins to negatively impact my First Life it wll be time to take my business elsewhere. Thanks.

You are correct. But we are attempting to improve current the verification system. We know there are issues and we're doing what we can to correct them. But we are also aware that no system is 100% effective.

Dear Linden Labs,

Please let me know what days/times are available for my RL visit so that I can have some snacks and a movie ready (do you all like Action flicks? I am a comedy fan myself).

Love,
Nova

I'd rather have you in my home than an identity thief in my bank account....


/me thinks if it wasn't so sad it'd be funny... :-|

They link the credit card info to Integrity's database and it should prevent that problem without the need for people to provide passport/driving licence/SSN's. Your daughter wouldn't be verified.

Hello everyone,

I am certainly not going to hand out my RL info to any arbitrary company in US with lax privacy laws and which is allowed to sell it. Sorry, ain't gonna happen. I took sufficient risk with providing my CC info already.

I really do not get why:

a) This whole thing is even necessary - when signing up, one has to declare age already (did you try to create an alt recently?), has to explicitly agree to the TOS saying that only 18+ people are allowed on the grid. So I do not see why we need to even talk about teens on the grid - they are obviously violating the current TOS and shouldn't be there.

b) As an adult, *I* want to have a choice what I see and what I do not. Preventing me from going to regions marked as adult only because I didn't provide my CC-info for my umpteens alt/do not have CC/*do not want* to provide it (privacy, especially when dealing with adult content!) is offensive to me. Why am I being treated as a little kid? It is not like one was force-fed with adult content against their will, you have to explicitly look for it and there are ways to deal with occasional griefers already. Make the mature/PG labeling work and enforce compliance with it, but do not restrict access!

c) I absolutely do not see why all this has to apply to private islands. There is no way to arrive to an adult private island without explicitly asking for it. Thanks to this silliness a lot of my friends will not be able to come to my place anymore only because we are adults and engage in mature activities (no, I do not mean sex )

d) I wonder what real purpose does this security theater actually serve - even kids can get credit cards today and faking an ID or "loaning" parent's or friend's ID is also easy. So the system will certainly not be effective to do what is it designed to do, only serve as a collection device for lucrative (and *marketable*) personal information.

I will rather look for another way to spend my free time if I am going to be forced to hand over sensitive personal information.

I couldn't agree with more. Both of you.

I myself am very happy to hear that this is all finally happening, I have been very disappointed to see a lot of the trash end up on the grid I used to reside in a PG region for business purposes and right next door someone had put up a sex club.

I am glad to see these things change it makes me very happy to know that LL is moving forward!

Thank you!

The GUI is already messy enough too add more messy features to the game. It's an on-line not a dang country, please getting a VISA or a Passaport will be easier than this... What is that all about, getting a bunch of IDs, what the heck? I mean, do some database grep/cat, add a nice button somewhere "OMG! No Adult Content!" and let people choose. I think I already filled the "I'm over 18yrs old" issue while registering in the game's site. And what's the point of SL Teens if you come with this affair now.

Ok, let's think about... LL wants load more money, giving almost the same service, practically pushing people to get a verified account via payment. Or they wanna help to some third party company to get private information like our IDs telling us we need to verified our age...

Now I might be wrong but this on-line game company is making things too complicated. If they ask me to pay or give away my private information beacuse of an on-line game new feature(a game), it's too stressful, too tight and serious. We'll turn on an easy target, our privacy is not being respected and probably won't be safe.

Each month I see less and less people joining the game, this new thing will improve the run-off symptom beacuse in the name of freedom they are generating a virtual-apartheid.

All I need is a simple Button: "OMG! No Adult Content!" and you guys (LL) do the filtering for me.

There is no need to go beyond what is used to verify on adult websites on the internet today.

Parents are the ones that need to be jailed and sued into oblivion for being too lazy to monitor what their children are doing with their computers.

Go beyond what the adult content business has financed endless legal battles to establish and you can expect Linden Lab to spend all of it's time and money mounting legal defenses for their right to violate the Constitution of the United States like any good Christian Republican business does.

I'm a fan of the indie films

Seconded! (Or thirded, I lost count)

If your credit card is already on file, then you have nothing to worry about.




There are plenty of underage users already in SL. When we come across that, it is AR'ed and they are removed. Unfortunately, this current system doesn't work as well as it should - hence the new system.




You do have a choice and this is all about making sure you can find it. It also helps give added assurance to the content providers that the SL users are in fact verified as adult.



This does not apply to private islands.

If you truly are going to merge teen and adult grids together, then I understand the age verifications.

BUT as so many have already said:

1) Kids can have access to suitable data to fake their age
2) The parents really should do their parenting and prevent the kids from going to adult websites
3)The free nature of SL is lost, if EVERYONE is forced to verify

I suggest you make five multiple-choise tag boxes right next to the TOS agree box, which will have randomly selected questions from the TOS.

That would force you to read the TOS at least once. If you red it, an alt account creation is easy. It would hinder the children (naturally you should provide the TOS in multiple languages) and whenever there comes changes on the TOS, you question everyone that particular part again.

ALSO force them to tag "I am over 18 years old" or "I am a minor" and enter a year of birth.
That should be enough.

Then you just give the mentors or other verified and trusted residents the priviledge, the ability to FLAG an avatar to be suspected as a minor.

When flagged the avatar need to provide verification if she/he wants an access to adult content. In that way the community could mark suspicious/obviously immature avatars.

WE NEED RESIDENT-based POLICE FORCES