Have you been to the Blog lately?

Might be a good time to hop over and see the latest post.

http://blog.secondlife.com/

Also, the mainstream media has picked it up.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=second+life&btnG=Search+News

Sample headlines:

"Pervs Set Up Shop in 'Second Life'"

"Second life: Hookup for virtual pedophilia?"

"Virtual Child Porn in Second Life: When the sickos go too far"

Fasten your seatbelts, folks.

As much as I hate to say it... I called it. LL before had a "look the other way as long as it is not advertised" policy on ageplay, when they should have gone further and outright banned all ageplay. Now we have this thing going on in the German media. Thankfully they at least did _something_ before this, and now are responding in the right way to something that hopefully will not shine a negative light on SL.

A similar fiasco happened with Yahoo chat; the press got wind that there were numerous age-play roleplay rooms and child porn rooms that they weren't really doing anything about. After the fiasco, Yahoo was forced to shut down all user-created rooms.

Intarweb history has repeated itself

Ageplayers: gtfo of our SL.

LL still doesn't get it. They're saying that they're going to ask us to verifiy using our SS numbers, passports, etc. I think really that none of us have problems with age verification; we have problems with the WAY that they want to do it.

*bangs her head against the wall*

I suppose this means the return of the ageplay threads.

NOOOOO!

*hides under a cardboard box*

Can we just post links to the old one? I can't take it all over again.

I propose the creation of an age play, child porn, and child sex forum to hold all threads on the subject.

New users who want to know how to get a box off their hand or how to align a pair of heels might prefer to not have their questions stuck in the midst of a bunch of threads on child sex, age play, and child porn.

Since neither of the people involved in this scandal were minors, age verification is irrelevant.

Exactly, Daisy. Which provides even more grist for the mills of the apologist 'it's only roleplay between consenting adults' camp.

Hear, hear!

Still, LL brought alot of this upon themselves (and us residents) when they opened the floodgates last year with the non-verified instant sign-up program. Once again, it's the residents who have to carry the can for LL's shortsightedness :\

LL said they will submit all details of those owners of those avatars to the relevant authorities. As it happens, they appear to have some details, age and gender noted in their blog, presumably others not disclosed there. But those two could just have easily been anonymous accounts registrered after 6/6/6.

When they started allowing anonymous accounts, they were inviting this to happen. And the entire SL community was screaming out against it back then. I really hate being proved right in this manner.

I still think using credit cards is the best way to attach a rl identity to an avatar, as it was before. The cc itself shouldn't be used as the age verification; short of rl physical presence and photo ID, there isn't any way to ascertain ID in a secure manner, regardless of digital dreams. the best we can do is for the player to have a click-through saying "Yes, I am 18+", so that they are guilty of perjury if they then continue. There also needs to be a closer link between the cc and the player; so that the card owner is considered legally responsible for all avatars registered with that card's details. Ideally, perhaps have some way to contact the card owner directly to confirm the registration of any accounts made with that card.

It may also be worth investigating whether a paypal account can be linked to a sl avatar for identity purposes.

There are some gaps here, mainly obscured by a load of panicky grandstanding in the usual age-play threads and armchair libertarians.

First of all, nobody has mentioned which country the alleged RP'ers were in: if they were in Germany, I'd smell a rat. if they were in the same german province as the production company of the show, I'd smell a giant rat. After all, isn't this just Machinima?

In fact, even if it's a setup, in european law, that doesn't matter. Technically, both the perps AND the investigator should be arrested and their families interviewed for sexual abuse - the rule is, better safe than sorry. In the normal course of events, ALL computers at both home and place of work are instantly impounded, and will not be returned until the absence of evidence has been proved. And that includes (INCLUDES mark you) images which merely seek to portray these behaviours, irrespective of the ages of the participants.

In case anyone thinks I am panic-mongering, they should look into the case of Pete Townshend, the principal composer and lead guitar in "The Who". He was found to have used his credit card, and his computer, to access child porn sites "in a spirit of investigation" - they banged him up, they took all his machines away. Caused his record label to get just slightly nervous, since every song he's ever worked on is on his computers. I also commend people who may be unfamiliar with the history of law enforcement and paedophile accusations, to read this: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html - both Duncan Campbell and PC Pro have reputations which you may independently verify if you wish.

By the by: if you read the Campbell piece then you may note that he is pointing to a tendency for law enforcement officials to make stuff up, knowing that paedophile accusations are a career-booster. Neither SL management, nor users, should be under any illusions as to the game they just started to play in. If I were SL I would be warning staff and shareholders not to travel to Germany.

This is what is reported on the BBC news web today :-

"Mr Schader was asked to pay to attend meetings where virtual and real child pornography was being shown.

Members of this group also offered to put him in touch with traders of real child pornography. "

This is a bit more than LL gave us the impression had been uncovered and in my opinion throws a different light on the discussion. This is definitely a No No.

But again, is it true? or has the report been glorified for attention getting

anybody see the german TV report? with the help of the pause button, you can see if you know anybody in the group involved.

so LL banned the now infamous group .. but you can still look it up (and everybody in it) on the beta grid.

i'm not suggesting people are guilty by association, but it sure could affect your reputation if you were in it, and people start looking you up and talking.

It's very interesting to use search and reference sources to look at the way cases are re-cast for effect. Compare this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6641321.stm

with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore

My personal view is, the BBC don't move on publication unless they know they are on safe ground (which doesn't always mean exactly truthful ground)

The current most findable article on this furore on the BBC site is:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6638331.stm

Which again, doesn't really like to mention other soources outside the BBC's closed world.

Boo.. Yay.. Boo... Yay!!

I agree about ageplay, it's disgusting and should be outlawed in SL totally.

What I don't agree with is banning or limiting AV based on look and size. I'm 5 foot in RL and I'm 5 foot tall in SL but since everyone is 6 to 8 feet tall I get accused of ageplay left and right. It's rude and mean and it's basicly telling me I should be discriminated because I'm small.

If AVs are going to have size limit then limit all sized now more giants! Down with Tall People!

Have you tried wearing heels?

I hear you. I make my av to be approximately my rl height. But the number I times i get labelled as playing a teenager is silly.

In any case, I see no issue with playing a child avatar in non-sexual contexts. For many people, playing as a child, complete with the childlike level of innocence about the world, is a useful tool for healing some deeper emotional scars.

Hahahaha! every child tries their mother's high heels on at some point don't they?

.. um .. except me, i never did that .. obviously.

Oh come on...not even once?

Not that I'm condoning the actions of these two avatars, but SL is simply online entertainment. Legally there were no laws broken. These were two consenting adults that were exercising there freedom of speech/expression though "artistic" means. There was no minor involved with a real birth certificate as evidenced by LL

There are thousands of web sites depicting incest through computer-created virtual images, hand drawn cartoons, animations etc. none of which have been shut down. Because the Supreme Court says their protected under the first amendment right to free speech and right to free expression laws. This incident was blown way out of proportion.

Has Robin stated "While not a terms-of-service violation--no illegal activity--it could be argued that this behavior is broadly offensive and therefore violates the community standards."

These two adults only punishment was to get banned because their actions were offensive to a person.

Does anyone bother to read teh facts of those reports? (Inculding the idiots at LL?)

The people involved in the "ageplay" were FOURTY FIVE and TWENTY SEVEN yesars old!!!

Pediphile is disgusting. Kodus for banning them. Good job.

Now explain to me just how Age Verification would have stopped this since both parties are over the age of 18.

Is LL really that stupid that they can't see it wouldn't make one bit of difference?

~Jessy

No, I don't think they are. These days, unfortunately, when someone does something wrong near you, you have to issue a public mea culpa in the form of taking some action - no matter how nonsensical - to demonstrate that you are "concerned".

Yes Jessica the horny perp involved was 54 not 45

It could have been different, a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old man.