Hi Winter. I deleted a couple of posts which were policy arguments, but not broadly applicable questions. I did address the question about adults and minors in this post.
Let me take it a bit further.
Age verification, even with the best tools, is very difficult. There are many companies on the Internet, My Space for example, who are working to solve this problem but so far there is no really good technical solution. I hope that we will have much better forms of age verification available in the not too distant future. But for now there is nothing foolproof. It certainly isn't the case that we refuse to take responsibility or provide controls; it's more that there are no guarantees which is what the TOS says.
Currently we ask people to provide us with a birthdate and if they are honest, and under 18, they don't enter the Main Grid. Essentially this system works the same way as the gating factor you're requesting -- it depends on someone telling the truth when they push that button. When we discover that they haven't been truthful, then we remove them.
Credit cards are not particularly good indicators of age, but if you feel more comfortable that they are helping you screen, then limit access to your parcel to people who have provided us with payment information. This information will serve as a proxy until we can actually verify age. For now that's the best we can do.
Let me take it a bit further.
Age verification, even with the best tools, is very difficult. There are many companies on the Internet, My Space for example, who are working to solve this problem but so far there is no really good technical solution. I hope that we will have much better forms of age verification available in the not too distant future. But for now there is nothing foolproof. It certainly isn't the case that we refuse to take responsibility or provide controls; it's more that there are no guarantees which is what the TOS says.
Currently we ask people to provide us with a birthdate and if they are honest, and under 18, they don't enter the Main Grid. Essentially this system works the same way as the gating factor you're requesting -- it depends on someone telling the truth when they push that button. When we discover that they haven't been truthful, then we remove them.
Credit cards are not particularly good indicators of age, but if you feel more comfortable that they are helping you screen, then limit access to your parcel to people who have provided us with payment information. This information will serve as a proxy until we can actually verify age. For now that's the best we can do.
Robin, thank you for responding to my question.
I went back and reread that passage of the TOS again, and I realize now that my head was a little off in terms of the entire message of the section, rather than focussing on the individual passage. BUt I'd like to point something out, and make a simple suggestion that hopefully could be passed to the programmers for possible implementation.
Linden Labs relies heavily on the honesty of the users making accounts. Luckily that will hold up in a court of law. "we asked for an age, they lied.. if they had told us the truth, they wouldn't have had access to that adult content". All the adult content providers are asking, is for the ability to do the same thing.. at the purchase point.
The suggestion.
I'd like a checkbox, when setting an item for sale, that says "mature". if that checkbox is checked, it interrupts the purchase/pay action.. and says words to the effect of "this item is classified as mature, and the seller requires that you be 18 or older in order to purchase it. are you 18 or older?" THis simply puts a simple "yes/no" dialog up, that doesn't have an "ignore" option. if the dialog is answered yes, the transaction proceeds, if no, the transaction cancels out. Some kind of timer should also cancel this out.
Give us a tool like this.. perhaps just as an LSL element.. and we'll use it for buy-pass actions, and adult content sales. (I know I would). Sure it won't STOP someone from lying.. but when the inevitable lawsuit comes down that names a content provider for selling to a minor.. then we as content providers can at least say "they lied to Linden Labs to gain access, and they lied a second time in order to be able to purchase the items."
It wouldn't "put linden labs out" or "ruin the world" like all sorts of black screens and barriers (I admit, that idea might be a little overreactive, sorry about that).. but at LEAST give us a way to generate a blue menu dialogue with no "ignore" button.
