Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Motivations and Goals

From its beginning, Second Life has been an open place where Residents can explore a wide variety of creative pursuits. This has resulted in a vast amount of amazing content inworld, and has helped make Second Life the exceptional place it is. It is very important to Linden Lab that we support and preserve this creativity and openness as our community continues to grow, and as the range of uses for Second Life widens.

At the same time, we must ensure that all Residents can enjoy the virtual world. In particular, it has become clear that some Residents are interested in pursuing certain “Adult” activities in Second Life that others would rather not casually encounter. To address this, over the next few months, we will need to implement some changes around Adult content to ultimately give all Residents more control over their Second Life experiences. We believe we can implement a better system than we have now for managing this content -- one that is respectful of everyone’s personal preferences, yet does not detract from the creativity and passion that defines Second Life.

The core goals of this initiative are to improve Second Life for everyone – by giving Residents more control over what they see, and by providing the best available method to make Adult content accessible only to those who ought to (and who desire to) access it.
We have four key guiding principles to work from, and we’d like you to consider them and share your thoughts:

1) We will create clear and consistent definitions of what constitutes adult content, in line with our Community Standards,

2) We will enable easy, reliable, and consistent ways to be able to access content by type - the goal being to ensure that Residents can choose what they want to see, purchase and experience.

3) We will implement effective Resident services and dialog to ensure that those who provide Adult goods or services can continue their activities without long-term disruption or loss of business.

4) We will implement account verification systems that provide an additional level of assurance for providers of Adult content that only adults are able to access their content. Such a system might be tied, for instance, to a verified payment method like a credit card, a validation by our age verification provider, or another credible method of validation.

Please use this thread to share your thoughts on these goals and to ask any questions you may have about why we will be making these changes for Adult content in Second Life.

Adult Oriented FAQ: https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6032

I suppose I have two hats here - one as an SL resident, and one where I'm out talking to relatives or enterprise or whoever about this virtual world stuff, and trying to play down all the divorce, sex whatever stuff - while explaining that hey., it's no different from the Internet.

Looking forward to understanding the logistics and all that but other residents will have tons to say so I'll leave it to them. I do wonder about strategic goals and how you will measure whether this change was a success or not.

Lengthier thoughts elsewhere.

Wagons ho!

http://tinyurl.com/cf6pf9

Not sure I like the sound of where this is going... maybe the rumour mills were right after all.

Anyhow - what sort of timeline has been established for all of this? Is there any kind of roadmap or tentative deadlines laid out, for when each of these four goals will be achieved?

#1 sounds good, if it can be done - past experience has been that LL seems very reluctant to give specific, clear and precise guidelines of anything.

#2 sounds good, if it means what I think it means - improvements to searches? Finer-grained searching? Better categorization of seraches?

#3 I've re-read a few times and don't really understand what it means. Effective resident services and dialog... ?

#4 sounds shakey at best. The current age verification method doesn't appear to work well, Linden Lab themselves don't even trust it / accept it as proof in the case of someone being falsely accused of being underaged.

Still, kudos for not posting this at 5pm on a Friday or on the eve of a vacation.

Cheers!

-Atashi

Could you, or another Linden, confirm or deny the possible additional goal that this is a precursor to merging the Teen and "regular" grids, please?

Is this leading up to a TG/MG merge? After COPA was shot down, Philip led on in an interview regarding this.

Are we looking to prepare for this? If so, this leads up to, what is Adult, not only sex, but other things, such as war, and graphic content.

It leads to the question of, what is morality in Second Life?

Is LL going to step up and define it for us? Or will the majority?

yay, more corp BS.

Do you guys just sit around all day and think up these moronic ideas? Perhaps you had to outsource to get this stupid.

Hi Everyone, I'm going to do my best to try and stay involved here in the forums!

@ Atashi - 1) guidelines will have to be specific if we want to make this process as easy and painless as possible.

2) Yes, search results will improve substantially. Those advertising adult content and those searching for it will be able to find each other much easier. And those who do not want to access such material won't have to

4) Yes, the current system doesn't work as well as it should. SL is a unique and interactive medium, thus the need to improve it


@ Dusan - mirroring the real world means creating a system similar to internet standards. This is much more familiar and hopefully eases the process.

Hey Dusan,
Thanks for being first to post! I think you might be quoting from an earlier version of the post where I did mention the mirroring concept in an attempt to explain "the kind of behavior you would expect to see in everyday life". We ran it by some folks and it wasn't conveying the message we wanted, so we decided to talk about it in less formal conversation with the community. Basically, we are trying for the majority of Second Life to just be... life. Any form, format, or point of view you like, in what we now call the mature area - sort of like the town square. The very sexually explicit and extremely violent, we want to have in a location you choose to go to, just as you would in the "real world".
Cyn

We will not be making any immediate changes to the Teen Grid. We decided to keep the two issues separate and this is '''not''' the project where we will decide the future of the TG.

But will this project be the precursor to the merging of the grids?

I'm in favour of everyone's choices being respected (as long as they're reasonable and not too rigid) so people who want to do "adult" things should be able to within reason and people who don't want to be confronted with "adult" themes should be able to as well and again within reason.

I do however note the lack of: #5) follow-up, enforcement and prompt fixing of introduced bugs

We've had age verification for a long time and except for a handful of parcels here and there (actually it would be useful if LL could release statistics on how many search listed places are currently set to only allow age verified residents) it's just gone unused.

Until everyone else is doing it I just don't see people voluntarily tagging their content as "adult only", especially if being the first (and possibly only) one to do so means limited exposure. On the flip side even if the majority tags properly a minority will find it profitable to not voluntarily tag themselves since it means they'll have an edge over their competition. LL *will* need to have people who follow up on ARs or otherwise you might as well not bother; enforcement just isn't a problem that can be solved with code.

There were also some rather big shortcomings in how it was implemented (to name one: restrictions working in an "OR" fashion instead of "AND" so you end up with "group member *or* age-verified" so a non age verified group member can still access the parcel anyway.

For a long time it didn't even matter if you were age-verified, if a parcel was restricted that way you couldn't get on it no matter what.

(PS: if I'm reading it right and "adult verified" can come from just payment info with no additional age verification then that would be a step in the right direction already)

I have no problems with these changes, my only problem being the age verification that is used now, I feel a simple CC on file should suffice. One question... Since Im a child av who often does shop at mature regions will I still be able to? I do have age verification in place, being my CC.

I'm sorry this is STOOPID, with a capital OOPID!

Of course, the people behind it, and the LL staff are not stupid. and their goal and direction in this issue is very valid. How do we make inworld all-age friendly?

This decision (which I may add is not the first LL has made trying to segregate adult content) is just going to be another uproar, another hassle, and another faulty conclusion to something that is not a problem.

Maybe I don't have all the answers, or what to do. I'm not one to shoot down an idea without adding my own alternative... but in this case... it just makes no sense to wake up one day and decide that all the adult content people have to move.

Hey, why don't we send all the criminals to Australia too, that way we'll never have to run into em again.

Suggestions for clarification:

1. Are Avatars (Residents) counted as Adult Content? Most of the people I know, including myself, are wonderful people who have from time to time presented themselves in ways that would fall into the Adult category. Are you going to attempt to control the movements of Avatars?

2. Will credit cards with an age listed be acceptable as verification? We all know the other attempted system was not only a flop but a serious invasion of privacy.

3. Are you seriously considering uprooting half the content in current Mature sims? And if so, are you going to compensate us financially for the forced relocation to Adult Reservations? Many people have sunk considerable investments of real money into their current locations.

(As an aside on that, despite your "uncertainty" I'm guessing this is a preparatory step for an All-Ages integrated grid. And frankly you'd save us all huge amounts of heartburn and butthurt if you created an All-Ages Continent instead of an Adult Reservation.)

4. Enforcement is not mentioned. What are the potential consequences for mis-flagging content or having an avatar that random person identifies as "Adult"? Again you are treading on territory where lots of money is at stake.

Is the long term aim here to merge the grids because if it is spit it out now and get it done with so business owners can plan for the future in a sensible manner.

"4) We will implement account verification systems that provide an additional level of assurance for providers of Adult content that only adults are able to access their content. Such a system might be tied, for instance, to a verified payment method like a credit card, a validation by our age verification provider, or another credible method of validation."

Can you explain this further? Will people with Xcite parts find they suddenly can no longer use them if they're not verified?

I’m all for creating holistic virtual communities, where teens and adults can interact in ways that enhance positive dialog and the exchange of ideas. It also makes sense for LL to eliminate the overhead associated with supporting multiple grids.

That being said, a merged grid that lacks STRONG protections for teen users would throw the door wide open to potentially devastating emotional and legal consequences. I can see the attorneys queuing up the lawsuit now; after the parents of some naive 14 year old girl find her weeping in front of the computer, while her avatar is “controlled” by an adult who offered her a “pretty collar” as a gift.

WHY WHY WHY? Why is it the job of Linden Lab to try to sort out content? Why is it not the job of the parents to prevent their kids from logging into SL? Why do adults that do not want to see adult content continue to teleport to OTHER PEOPLE's LAND?!
The offended should be the ones that need to move... they have the ability to set up their own vision of their non-adult world. they can grab their land and do their thing.

If you read the various documents is says that either "Payment Info on File" or the Age Verification will now verify for "Adult" areas. That's a major change from what was proposed months ago, and nowhere near as restrictive. Of course, it's nowhere near as effective, either, but if LL feel it's enough as a legal CYA then go for it, I say.

Please define as clearly as possible what "Adult Content" is. Obviously sex beds and certain attachable body parts... but what else? Will anyone who sells a skin be relegated to be down the street from "Bob's Discount Genital Store" and "The Sexatorium?"

Likewise, is this to say that someone who has their own land in the main grid, who wants to occasionally slip up to their bedroom for a little sexual activity, will now be forced to sell their land and move next door to the nearest house of ill repute? That seems quite ridiculous.

Mari
(for whom the irony of me, of all people, posting about "slipping up to the bedroom for a little sexual activity" is not lost on)

CC doesn't proof you're over 18 years of age.
There are enough ways a minor could get a CC from what I've read in other topics

Nothing other than a physical check proves someone is over 18.

@mari: I asked the same questions as you on the "Definitions" thread and actually got a definitive answer!

Ok, we all see the "Sex" Portion of this.

What about: "Representations of intense violence depicting death, torture, dismemberment or other severe bodily harm."

Combat regions? That depicts death very much so. Can be very grusome with land mines grenades rifles. Does this become "NC-17"?

If it does, then that sets a president of anything outta puritanical norms is not ok.

If it does NOT, then that sets a line of, "Death is fun and unavoidable, while sex is a dirty thing that must be hidden"


I would like some further explanation on things other than sex.

Thank you.

All for it. In fact I think this will be welcome change in the grid. The forums tend to be very one sided with the 'click' that hangs out here. I think the grid as a whole will welcome the changes. I have no issue with what people do in SL however it does seem that the adult items in SL are forced down your throat all the time. And of course the people on here will not like this but I have watched SL go from something very creative to nothing more then a digital peep show with glory holes which is another reason I think the media has turned their nose to SL and have done a 360 on media stories. Again not saying don't have adult content so before you attack me make sure you understand that. I am saying that it should be watched more and controled more. It comes down to each his own however as I said you rather can not TP anywhere these days without running into something adult. It would be nice to once again go for a trip on the grid to see creations and such and the artistic creations of creators in all their wonders without the adult stuff.

My 2 cents... Let the attack begin from the 'click'.

As mentioned in so many threads before this one, age verification using the currently available system is not a viable method for the vast majority of non-US residents. In many countries the information requested is held in secure databases that nobody has access to, much less a private company such as the one used by Linden Lab. If I were to submit my UK National Insurance number, then Integrity/Aristotle (or whoever is currently handling the age verification process for Linden Lab) better *not* have it on record somewhere, or the UK Government will have some explaining to do. (Mind you, they're pretty adept at losing laptops and flashdrives stuffed to the gills with confidential information of millions of UK residents, so possibly not...)

There have been well-documented instances of residents using other peoples' ID to verify (even that of long-dead celebrities), and in all honesty nothing is going to stop little Johnny from nicking his dad's credit card or 'borrowing' his mum's passport just to register a Second Life account so he can cop a load of that sex stuff he's read about online.

If a minor lies in order to access Second Life, then it is the fault of the minor. Adult residents should not be made to jump through (sometimes illegal) hoops to protect little Johnny; little Johnny shouldn't be here in the first place, because he *lied* to get here.

A valid credit card on file, or verified Paypal account should be all that's needed to access adult areas in Second Life. If you're going to require that residents age-verify, then you will be barring access to a large portion of the grid to a large portion of your (often paying) users.

If age verification is the only option given, it will fail. All I ask is, if this 'goal' *must* go ahead, please ensure there are viable alternative options to age verification that can be used by any resident, anywhere in the RL world.

Edit:This. Absolutely this.