Spanish TV Network reveals 'SL state of censorship' (NewsFromTomorrow)

It is not yet known how Linden Labs will react to the spanish TV network film that labels Second Life as a state of censorship. Viewers were stunned to see how 'residents' were censored via their pixels, and yet still had to pay for the treatment.
The film focused on various sims in Second Life where words, pictures, actions, and objects were censored and restricted despite the fact that all users were 18 and over and all representations were just pixels.

One resident commented "It is pretty amazing that adults will tolerate being told what to do, suffer seemingly random censorship and weekly rule changes, and still pay real money for it, and its just a game!"

The media is pondering whether these revelations will cause a shake up of Linden Lab policy and it is being questioned whether a pixel character that doesn't exist should have human rights that need to be taken into consideration as it seems those same pixel characters can be considered lawbreakers.

What the future may hold for Second Life is now under scrutiny with record numbers of residents (some paying upwards of $250 US dollars per month to 'play') complaining of restrictions, age verification plans, and lack of diversity.

One thing is for sure, Second Life is a hot topic in the media for better or for worse, maybe it is more entertaining to home viewers than to the online users who are paying for it.

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This piece is not an actual news item, but a speculation that Linden Lab jump anytime the media become supposedly concerned about an issue, so if the next TV company to wander around SL would focus on censorship, we might get lucky and have our freedom to restored to the level that a pixel deserves.

LOL - you can't win for losing.

No one will give Linden Labs a break.

*big virtual hugs for Linden Labs*

According to the most recent statistics posted by Meta Linden, out of a population of 5,973,301 residents at the end of April only 83,063 residents were subscribers (Premium accounts).

I guessed I'm "stunned" that nearly 99-percent of the resident population in Second Life expects to be treated like a paying customer.

I don't have a premium account, but I still pay a fair amount each month in tier. I just chose to live and have business on private estates and pay the middle man. Why shouldn't I expect to be treated at least the same as someone with premium who probably pays less each month?

Your landlord is the one paying the tier. You might wish to take this issue up with them. As far as Linden Lab would be concerned you're not a Premium account (though you'd be a customer for having paid US$0.30 to complete a currency purchase or for spending US$9.95 to register a main account or alt).

thats only 69.5 alts per paying user, so I'll buy that 99% figure.

I "am* a paying customer and I do own Mainland tiered land, so i am paying Lindens somewhere around 35 dollars a month just to live there. I also frequently convert money to lindens and never seem to take any out. I am a customer and so were alot of people that now have to watch their Ps & q's in a place that thinks GOR, Rape, Death, Violence, combat and things are okay. But certain things are nonos. Not to mention I have to pay for the age verification program if I wish it, but if I don't remeber to get a little box checked in land, they can take it away.

Not only that, if they were really after the well being of the people they play as they stay. Why not make all land default as Mature and then you have to uncheck it if they have no mature content.?

Why becuase then half the people that they have couldn't go and then they wouldn't get their share. I am sure it doesnt hurt that Linden is doing the ID verification through the Marketing company. Yup thats right, so while everyone is complaining about the stuff they have to give to get their id verified has no one thought that SL is handing over this Marketting company all these names? I am sure they are getting a kick back there as well as me having to pay to get it done.

They are a business. But this moralistic ground of banning is a load of Bs.

Damn,you had me there for a minute.

I'm just stunned that people would be up in arms defending the "rights" of a bunch of sick jerkoffs running avatars made to look like little children, with their heads bobbing up and down between the legs of adult avatars operated by some sick perverted sorry excuse for a human being.

I'm all for freedom, and although the entire sex thing in Second Life isn't my cup of tea, I don't support restricting others' freedom to do it. But for deity's sake, this sort of thing is just beyond the pale. They should have put their foot down on this at the very beginning. To allow and condone behavior like this in the name of freedom of speech or freedom of expression is outrageous.

We already disallow, in our Community Standards, the use of derogatory or demeaning language or images with reference to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Yet such an absolutely filthy and vulgar affront toward one of humanity's most precious treasures, the children, is to be left alone in the name of freedom of speech/expression.

I am physically ILL, from reading all of this utter rubbish.

Heres the thing, Zap, if they start censoring this stuff which is between two consenting adults whats to stop them from censoring other things? Noone is hurt from what they're doing, and I don't know bout you but I'd sure as hell rather they play out their fantasies in a virtual world than do it in real life. Consider it in terms of war, if you stand neutral while other places are attacked sooner or later you'll be left alone with noone to help you.

When LL stated that they will no longer allow the word 'ageplay' to be used, and that people could not roleplay in public with anything offensive, they did state that roleplay was allowed in private.
No stric definition of private was given, but on the German TV film the avatars were filmed in private areas. Therefore those avatars were complying with TOS and new rules, if a film crew wants to film somewhere it is virtually impossible to prevent.
Everyone knows how to zoom and pan the camera into places even when they cannot enter with their avatar.

If private activities are not private at all, then this needs to be made clear and ban all offensive behaviour outright. No shooting, forced capture, cannibalism, murder, rape, assault, nudity, pornography, links to images off-world, links to websites that cannot be confirmed to be safe by LL, criminals should not be allowed to register (easy to check with the new verification system), no escorts, no stripping, no profane material, no swearing, no threats, nothing distasteful, and then the 3 people who are left on SL can have fun on their own with a nice cup of tea in peace.

I must have seen a different film to you then, the one I saw wasn't in a private place, it was in a child 'brothel'. The reporter walked straight in where some people were having sex and other child avs were waiting around.

No panning of cameras was required and the reporter was even sent real child porn which you can see rezzed on his screen. We were even shown the group he must have been invited to as we were shown panning down the long list.

Until the sim server they're on goes down.

I don't buy your slippery slope arguments, they are weak, and baseless. By that very logic, we need to immediately and summarily strike the intolerance clause in the Community Standards, because all of those things amount to censorship, and if they censor hate speech, pretty soon they'll be censoring environmental activism speech. Dumb analogy, yes. Just about as baseless as your own slippery slope argument.

Linden Lab has an extraordinarily liberal track record with regard to keeping out of the affairs of the Residents. It's an exceedingly free world out there, and it is by design. There is NOTHING to suggest that further erosion of your precious rights is just down the slope, because today they did the RIGHT thing, and said NO MORE OF THIS. I find it just absolutely outrageous that children cannot be afforded the same protections as Jews, Homosexuals, Black people, etc.

And to the "no one gets hurt" argument - no one gets hurt when somebody fires up a particle script that spews swastikas across half a region either. All of those protected classes of people are here to defend themselves. The children are not.

And no, I don't want those sub humans here in Second Life, or in real life acting out on real children. I want them in prison. They have no right to use the Second Life platform to act out their criminal desire to exploit children any more than anti semitic hatemongers have the right to act out their hatred toward Jews.

What Denise said.

Last night, I thought it was an issue of privacy invasion by some news show. However, today it became a little more clearer to me after seeing the report on YouTube. It may have been consenting adults but it wasn't in a private place. Most of all, it couldn't have been any more blatant how they were inviting the reporter's avatar into the brothel and openly offering RL child porn to him.

This isn't just about today. This is about the path they've been starting down. Ageplay is effectively banned TODAY, but why did it start? The media? The residents in the townhall who complained? You're forgetting, you get enough people to talk out about something, sooner or later they'll get heard. THATS what the analogy is about. I have no doubt in my mind that if enough people start protesting Gor, Furries, or hell anything else you can think of that LL will shut it down too. And if the Media gets behind it too? Sooner than you can blink it will be gone. What you do in private is a private affair, and if its done virtually even better. And for the 'protection of the children' crud you're talking about, I gotta ask.. WHAT CHILDREN? The whole act was between two consenting adults. Key word here: ADULTS. I can understand wanting to protect children, and I can get the fact that you'd be afraid that some of these people might be some real life pedofiles. But all I can see is that its a fantasy, where no real child is involved.

PS. Maybe its just me.. but even considering the thought that someone could be 'sub human' seems just plain wrong. Despite how much you may not like them or their views, noone is above someone else.

Completely wrong!

There were 4 different places being shown.
On one place it was a private house with a huge warning sign outside that it was a private skybox for friends of the owner who like fantasy and imaginative pixel roleplay.

A private skybox!

The place where they showed the bedroom was somewhere completely different, but also a private house.

The place where the reported ASKED someone for child porn - which is surely against TOS to ask - was another completely different place, I should know, I own that place, and NO SEX ACTS involving young looking avatars was filmed there.

They gave the impression that it was all the same place/same people, its utter rubbish made with fancy editing.

I've decided that all this "stuff" and I could be using a more graphic word but i'm trying to be polite in the media about ageplay or now censorship is well some people trying to get known in the media (anything for a byline ..)

I've also decided that with the amount of coverage that is occuring this stuff is probably being leaked to them of course by people wanting to see how much "hysteria" they can cause among the userbase and how much of a reaction occurs etc just like those guys who make computer viruses and send them out in an effort to make people's lives miserable.

The error that everyone including Linden Labs is making is paying it this much attention and I honestly dont believe half of it lol. I also dont feel particularly "censored" I do what I want pretty much and no one bugs me as long as I dont grief other people and make other people's lives miserabel I am left alone.

Also like many I think I have reached a saturation point with all this stuff and honestly have stopped caring its like the boy who cry's Wolf and then he actually sees one he has screamed wolf so many times people just ignore him..

Have you noticed there isn't hardly any noise of protest being made about Gor, or Furries? Why? Because nobody really gives a shit. They have no real life analog which can potentially be harmed. When it comes to sexual abuse of children, the vast majority of us DO give a shit. Why don't you?

Ageplay? If someone wants to role play a child avatar in a non sexual way, I think it's kinda weird, but whatever's clever for them. Putting that "child" you're playing into a sexual situation with an "adult" avatar? Forget about what laws apply in which country. If you don't think there's anything wrong with this, you need some serious adjustment of your moral compass.

WHAT CHILDREN??? Well, golly Ribbon, let's start with the children whose REAL LIFE PICTURES of them in nude, sexually explicit situations were exchanged during this particular encounter with the German news reporter. This is very likely a more widespread issue than just this incident. So don't give that "what children" bullshit. These people are doing more than just bumping avatar uglies. There are REAL CHILDREN involved here.

You're defending what is indefensible - Giving pedophiles and child abusers a platform to act out their sick twisted fantasy - for the sake of the friggin Gors and Furries? Jesus Christ.

Have you noticed there isn't hardly any noise of protest being made about Gor, or Furries? Why? Because nobody really gives a shit. They have no real life analog which can potentially be harmed. When it comes to sexual abuse of children, the vast majority of us DO give a shit. Why don't you?

Furries have been targeted, the ban on ageplay included a ban on 'babyfurs', maybe you think that was important to prevent the potential cruel abuse of baby dragons in real life.

Ageplay? If someone wants to role play a child avatar in a non sexual way, I think it's kinda weird, but whatever's clever for them. Putting that "child" you're playing into a sexual situation with an "adult" avatar? Forget about what laws apply in which country. If you don't think there's anything wrong with this, you need some serious adjustment of your moral compass.

Set your moral compass to Hypocrite if you aren't concerned about the use of weapons against people, forced capture and rape.

WHAT CHILDREN??? Well, golly Ribbon, let's start with the children whose REAL LIFE PICTURES of them in nude, sexually explicit situations were exchanged during this particular encounter with the German news reporter. This is very likely a more widespread issue than just this incident. So don't give that "what children" bullshit. These people are doing more than just bumping avatar uglies. There are REAL CHILDREN involved here.

The pictures were very clearly clothed with some blurred patches, considering their deception at presenting 4 different sims as one place, I am not overly worried at what they tried to present there.

You're defending what is indefensible - Giving pedophiles and child abusers a platform to act out their sick twisted fantasy - for the sake of the friggin Gors and Furries? Jesus Christ.

Why are murderers allowed to act their fantasies, and drug abusers, and cannibals? There are quite a lot of cannibal sims on second life, the incidence of crime involving cannibalism in the USA is minute (that means tiny).
If people are real life criminals that are using second life as you suggest, why aren't the statistics for crimes representative of the number of sims/users on SL?

Because its a game.

Lest you think my silence in this discussion means you've won me over, or convinced me with any of your stupid arguments, rest assured, I'd prefer to go argue with a Rock. I find more intelligence in rocks.

You must not forget that furries are also for some god forsaken reason, just not liked in general. Ontop of that, they're associated with beastiality. As for Gor, forced slavery? You can easily link things if you try hard enough. I'm all against people who do this stuff in RL and own pictures of RL kids and such so dont' think I'm saying let the real pedofiles go free. What I AM talking about is the majority of people who are in it just as a fantasy and nothing more.

I agree.

coco

The line needs to be drawn at RL... simple as that. I'll firmly stand behind LL for dropping the hammer on people using the SL platform for illegal and dubious activity. In this case I mean the owning, possesing, and exchanging of RL illegal material..aka child porn. I have NO tolerance for real lives being affected by illegal activities in SL... none. ESPECIALLY children's lives!
I also stand firmly behind the rights of adults to pretend or RP what they want in SL. It doesn't matter if I, or any other ADULT here finds a certain depiction distasteful or disgusting. There are MANY virtually depicted things i find distasteful in SL, so friggin what... move along then and find a spot more suitable to your tastes.
There really IS a middle ground here, and I'd say those who wont admit it either selfishly want to dictate morality to others, or selfishly want complete unrestricted freedom with no reguard to others.

WTF are you talking about?