Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Filtering Adult Content in Search and Classifieds

Any comments about "filtering" -IE ethical concerns, practical effects, and implementation are all irrelevant because search as it stands does not function. It does not work. A working search enables users to 1) find what they are looking for with a high degree of relevance and 2) Does so in an efficient manner without excessive effort (IE, scrolling through pages of results to find a single relevant entry). SL's search does neither. Part of the cause of this is widespread abuse (gaming of all kinds, including traffic fraud).

Fix search first (in policy and technology); only then will the question of filtering become relevant.

Felix - you've hit upon one of the reasons we want to make the changes outlined in yesterday's blog post. We are more than aware that the current search is not working to prevent accidental unwanted content when doing unrelated searches and that the listings are not following the current guidelines.

Jeska, this brings up a big question for me then. Is the real issue here that the current content as it stands is too accessible???

And could it's accessibilty to non-verified residents be at least limited if the search engine was fixed/redesigned/modified/whatever ???

On numerous occasions, I have teleported into a place that I completely did not want to be in, solely because the listing was misleading.

*edit* - and good morning to you, welcome back to the threads

This doesn't actually answer the question of how moving explicit adult content to a new continent fixes the problem. If it's merely a parcelling issue, then fix the parcelling flags and enforce your TOS and community standards.

Yeah, but the reason it isn't working is because residents aren't following the RULES.

Adding more RULES isn't going to solve the problem of residents not following them.

The problem is to the NORTH, but you're heading WEST. IE, your solution is orthogonal to the problem, and you're getting no closer to solving it, but instead adding unnecessary (and unwanted) encumbrance to the residents and the grid.

We'll be back here in a a number of months with the NEXT installment of "Westward Ho!", unless you come to this realization.

BTW, still waiting for that "research data". Any idea when we can expect to peruse it?

I was typing about this earlier, you should also have a box on the profile that tells whether or not a person is "age verified" and not just "payment info on file" "no payment info on file," or "payment info used." You could put "age verified" underneath that. Personally, that might take some of the "intrigue" out of it and the entertainment for some age players that want to bely the belief to others that they are really that age, but that would be better than authorities, possibly, holding LL responsible if someone really WAS underaged and doing it. There are loopholes in everything. Better to be safe than sorry.

As for the classified filtering, I cannot wait to be able to find something easily!!!

If a person has a pick in there profile with the parcel named Force f*cked, how does this filter apply?

Then there’s object name/description spamming, so a PG area could easily show up under "adult" or vice versa all based on the current "all search" gaming tactics. As mentioned previously with the "hair" spam. If this is somehow supposed to "hide" sex from the general population, and you're using a Google type search... please go to Google and search for something to in fact see how well that worked for them.

Let call a spade a spade here. You basically turned a parcel of land into a webpage. Made objects the imbedded links/images with titles and keywords. Granted its a great indexing tool, but you've opened up a whole world of hurt for yourselves when it comes to gaming SL. You’ve taken the epitome of 90's internet porn marketing and implementing it into this search. I was in said marketing during that time. It was heyday of fun let me tell you.

I can't wait to see if you implement viral marketing between parcels. That will screw EVERYTHING.

Furthermore, adding in filters based on object description may sound appealing, but almost anything now can be classified as a fetish of some sort. I'm not going to type out instances, most can use their imaginations for that. In the end it will make searching redundant based on the amount of words/combinations of words you'd have to block from "PG" to "Adult". This has all gone from trying to block fake traffic into something far worse. Complete and total chaos across the grid. I can almost certainly predict that after 3 months of all of this being done, search itself will be useless. That’s just my opinion though. I will however applaud you for doing your best not to make the “internet” about sex. The reality is though.. it is for the most part. It’s a medium which allows anyone to obtain what the can’t in real life. 9/10 that’s basic human desires and nature.

I know this quote just knocked my socks off. I am an educator in the Edu Grid and in SL.

I would be totally shocked to learn that a school was using the Adult grid for teaching, espically at the age mentioned. I would suggest that you just screen shot the place then use the pics in powerpoint or something. I can understand why though, as there are not many good builds in Edu grid or I guess in Teen grid as well. You need to bring your students into a place where there are content creators.
It is possible to have an avatar that can access both places. Perhaps you should use that method. Buy a Pyrimid and than take it to the Edu Grid.

This should be posted in another thread.

Noted! What if we had a PG / Mature / Adult searches and multiple options could be selected, thereby increasing the results? I ask because PG and Adult are at both ends of the spectrum , leaving a lot of content that will remain Mature excluded. Would this work as well?

I can go along with this if a av isnt age verified the Adult choice be greyed out.

"If I'm looking for a sofa, I want to see all sofas, whether adult or not."

That btw, with the obligatory exceptions, is pretty much universal. Choice is not always dictated by just one factor (sex rating) over another (wow! nice sofa!).

Consider a mattress store in real life. As soon as some well meaning idiot elected to office decides to protect the innocent, you might see a sign as you shop there that says "warning! this product can be used for sexual purposes!" That shop will have become someplace you don't want to take your kids to. (Do you really want to have to explain to your ..ummm... 4th grader ?..what that means ? Should you HAVE to?? Isn't there somebody that can pass laws that prevent that from happening?? To protect the innocent from having to be in a store with those signs and those products ?) Thus a well intended reg for a warning becomes a tangled uninforcable mess because the unforseen happens. And there is ALWAYS the unforseen ! You can't know what you can't know. You can not predict and address every circumstance! This is why the very BEST business contracts and regulations have very clearly defined intent, and very few defined details (they will be defined thru time and called "precedents"!

"Do not trick, coerce, or force those that do not want to view adult content to view yours."
That works. "Put that portion of your content that MAY be used for sexual purposes, and meets our best effort rules on what that definition is, on another sim and paint it red with black and yellow lines surrounding it with a script that will verify age of the viewer and make them sign a release before they look at it." That doesn't work (for one, you'd have to define "yellow" with no possible exceptions).

I make waterfalls and some furniture etc. I make trees and plants and butterfly poofers. My waterfalls come in three different versions. You can buy them with sexual animations, with simple sits or cuddles, or you can buy them with no poses at all. Depends on what you might want to do with them. (no ... I haven't even THOUGHT about putting sex balls in trees ! But if you want to decorate yours with sex balls like a christmas tree on your own place...well more power to you! ) The point of the store is to give people things or beauty that they can enjoy on their SL home. And there is a choice as to what all they want with them. There is no nudity or sex or violence or any behavior offensive to ANY customer "allowed". Allowed is in quotes because there will always be the occassional idiot that parachutes in nekid, fresh off of New Penis Island chasing anything with legs and generally harrassing good people. All I can do is ban them after the fact. ( you got a rule that will prevent that one guys? Oh wait ! already is one! My store rules! ... they just broke it is all. Will they break yours too ? ) Are these new rules and regs going to force me to run three separtate classifieds now and have three separate areas ? One for PG, one for Mature, one for adult ? One for 4th graders ? Will I have to pay three times the classified costs and pay tier on two more sims ? Should those that want just cuddles on their waterfall or sofas not be able to see my classifieds for trees and waterfalls and furniture ?

Just a thought and suggestion to "professionals and educators" here. Police yourself the same way you do in the real world because this one is exactly the same! Do not call your lawyer, congressperson, or Linden Lab to police your business for you because that effects millions and doesn't work for millions! You teach children and want to bring them to SL ? Fine (huh? what?!) ... but do not complain about having to actually visit those places first yourself before bringing your kids there and having to create landmarks on the ones that are appropriate...thats just common sense, not a cultural deficiency! You want to hold business meetings here and don't want your employees wandering off or looking at porn ? Well its just like the real world ... put it in a memo ! (last I looked... there was sex and porn and violence and some really weird stuff out there in the real world too. Did you call upon Linden Lab's help there as well or do you have your own policy for employees ?)

Lindens, I understand about liabilities. Those congressional regulations that say .."ohhh btw... we want YOU to enforce this regulation and bear liability for any of your users that aren't in compliance". And I understand that you want this place safer and more enjoyable for ALL your online citizens. But you have good policies in place already. You have the TOS and you have the mature and PG system. You have a teen grid. Perhaps better enforcement of the TOS 18 and over rule with some form of age verification on sign up is called for to protect this place. But at sign up ! And yes you can read that as another vote for registered and paid subscription only. ( restraint here PLEASE ! If you go asking for social security numbers again you will be in violation of the first and foremost unwritten law of the internet ..partnership with paypal where accessable is a good thing...pass that liability on to them ! LOL nope ... I dint say that. )

Good feedback - thanks!

why would you search for 'sex' if you werent looking for mature content?
Youre kindof like the spinster who buys a pron magazine and then complains about the content.

What about someone who is online as their alt but is an adult and age verified already at the main account. So now they can't even search and see adult listings?

*scratches head*

Why not keep methods already used at the teen grid, know who IS a teen with the same methods (not that I agree but if it's been good enough up til now...and also selfishly speaking, that would not affect me or other existing grownup SL residents) and change THEIR search results. And limit THEIR teleport capacities in-world.

Shouldn't the NEWcomers be the ones to adapt?

This will have to go deeper - basically if an av isn't age verified then the server should fail the search if the search request includes a request for adult content (or ignores the adult content request).

Just graying out the check box in the client, would not prevent someone using a third party client which didn't do this.

[On the other hand, if you aren't worried about unverified avatars bypassing the search restrictions by using a third party client, then you probably aren't worried about unverified av's being able to check the adult choice during searches either...]

Matthew

So, people who are grown in RL and use alts for modeling/business reasons, would have to log out, switch to their main (where they might be inundated with IM or whatever reason they used an alt to chill with in the first place that day) and search, then go back to the alt again...

Why not ding the ones who are coming in, but I still think kids have no place in SL as it is today anyway. And that any online place open to the public - chat room, 3d world - cannot completely protect its users from 'bad content' or being hit on for lack of a better phrase. AOL, Yahoo, all of it, I mean AOL chatters used credit cards right, and we know the stories about pedos lurking there looking for kids. How will a credit card or other 'info' stop any of that. It will just stop the pictures and pose balls being seen maybe. But it can't protect kids.

Only way to protect them is to officially keep them away. I'll say it again, why not just improve the teen grid. If SL wants to be more attractive to business users, why not make a separate business grid. Shrug.

I do believe a Linden has said in a prior post that they are looking into a blanket type verification that would cover the alts of a verified main acct.

absolutely no system will be fool proof and of course people will try to cheat and over ride the greyed out option but it seems a logical place to start until someone has a better idea.

Wow. As a parent I would be at the Superintendents Office immediately if my kid came home telling me what they saw on SL in school today. That is at least 8 years too young. As a member of the SL community, this frustrates me to no end. Are we to sanitize for the protection of educators using the platform in completely inappropriate ways? There are plenty of forms of media that show Ancient Egypt etc in age appropriate levels. This is not one.

But 'for now' each acct. will need independent verification. Who knows when that one click to register them all, will be.

(the point is still that not everyone can, will, or wants to, give their rl data)
(and some can't get more than one acct onto one method, too)

Right now it's really hard to use Paypal (to sign up) for some reason, a lot of people have had trouble with that.

Obviously, if LL wants this to succeed in any capacity, they have to make it so those that have what is needed to verify and want to, can do so without any problems. Then they can figure out how to get those that don't have what they ask for verified if they so choose. Then they can try to work something out for those that object to the current methods for whatever reason. It will take work, and I don't think they are up to the task.

wasteof coding. i do support a filtered result. something similat \r to googles safe moge moderate mode and safe off mode would be easier and just as effective. it is already in place in 'show mature content' . tying search results to account verifications seems cumbersome. much like moving adult mainland content to ur adult concentration camp i mean continent . no adult vendor asked for that. it was some educator who wont even be on the grid in a year. whatthey should do is buy one of ur discounted islands likeu want them to and stay outta people's houses.

Well, given that everyone on the adult grid is auppose to be adult, I must confess I don't know why filtering should be mandated on people as opposed to a voluntary switch such as the one we currently have!

In terms of automatically designating something as adult based on keywords, I'd hope for something more intelligent than the current system. For instance, I wouldn't want a concert for sextet to get automatically flagged as adult.

Matthew

>Jeska, is that why I can currently search for the keyword "sex" with mature results >turned off and get a return of 22800 results with the top results being for sex clubs and >sex animations? Shouldn't all of those only appear if i have the mature box ticked? How >will moving adult businesses to their own continent help with enforcement of search >policies or lack thereof?

I decided to use google search engine and type out the word 'sex' and I am so surprised because I received 773,000,000 hits for websites 90% of them being for adults. I guess that I will send my passport number to google so I can browse the Internet. I hope goverment will apply special chip to my body soon so this way they can send electric shock through my brain to warn me that the content I am looking at is mature.