High profile law Professor comments on SL's new reg system

I dunno if anyone already mentioned it, but this article on FindLaw.com by *deep breath* "an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle and a Director of the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology" is mainly about the MySpace trial, but talks more generally about responsibility of service providers to protect minors and comments specifically on Second Life, with the observation that :

"Until recently, Second Life - another online community -- asked for a credit card for its new members. But now, according to SecondCast -- a podcast that covers Second Life activity - Second Life only requires a valid email address from new users. Obviously, a minor can legally have a valid email address, but not a valid credit card - so Second Life seems a bit less secure.

(Second Life also has another system to keep adults and teens apart: It operates a separate community - Teen Second Life - exclusively for members between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. But without credit card age verification, this backup system, too, may be porous.)"

(Actually she's wrong. You don't even need a valid email address!)

Interesting then, that her opinion about the implications of the new registration system is in direct contrast to what Philip and LL have said.

So anyhoo, Second Life are really getting attention for all the right things in all the right places, eh?!

Yeah, well, this really was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

If say, clubs and shops that deal in "adult entertainment" started banning those who aren't "verified" (haven't provided CC# or paypal) it may cover them somewhat. Won't stop some kid screwing around with adults outside of those places, though.

Really, the most dangerous thing they did, which they have thankfully stopped, is open the doors to the teen grid. It seems that the protests against this have had least knocked some sense into them on that front.

I'm guessing that they're falling for the old saying of "any press is good press".

Except, of course it'll be bringing the wrong kind of people in, rather than those who want to be part of an exciting online community that is built by residents.

Lewis

Furthermore, all that will be obsolete since they're revising the TOS and registration system. I like the proposed changes.

How do the new proposed changes prevent a pedophile from entering the teen grid, and convincing a minor to begin communications outside of SL?

It doesn't. You never have a way of knowing the age of a person who comes in until interactions take place. I must emphasize the NEVER. There is really no way of identifying a computer user's age.

1. But if the pedophile is caught, LL has info it can give the authorities.

2. If they do all their communications outside LL then not only is LL not liable for such communication but no one can stop them at this point because they've changed medium.

Try telling MySpace that.

I thought LL has legal council. If they do, they need to either listen to them or fire em.