I am relatively new to 2nd Life. I've heard a lot about Second Life and it is getting a lot of positive press as an exciting new thing. I work as a counselor with kids. What disappoints me about Second Life is the pervasive use of child avatars for sex play and the open advertisement about such play. I have heard these arguments: this is a games, these are consenting adults, no one can do anything about it anyway. Second Life has had much positive press with the involvement of celebreties, universities, and corporations. I doubt very much that these groups and individuals know about this side of Second Life. Here are my questions: Why should users of Second Life be able to access content which is not otherwise legally available on the web? There may be a distinction between photographs and images but how can anyone claim that users who enjoys seeing images of child sexual activity at Second Life would not also appreciate actual photos? There may be some who say that this is an aspect of Second Life that harms no one and reflects nothing about their actual life, but how do we know that? Maybe it is a small minority that engages in these activities, and maybe of that a small minority are actual pedophiles. Why should pedaphiles
have a forum to enact their fantasies and compare notes? Some may say we only do this on Second Life and nowhere else..but who is to know? Is it worth the risk? As a counselor who works with kids and sees the devestating and life long effects of abuse, I find such imagery not a game at all. My question to the Second Life management is this: If I am wrong about these arguments and this is harmless activity, why not create a seperate sim specifically billed for child sex play or pedaphile sex for consenting adults. If Linden Labs would be embarrased to do this as I would think they would be, then it is unfair to the great majority of paricipitants to allow the activity to go on under the cover of second life... It also tarnishes Second Life's promise by providing cover for pedaphiles, and it could be easily corrected.