"Adult content" question

Hi,

Would my SL (residential) home with Sexgen bed, pose balls, etc need to be labelled "Adult content" under the proposed age verification plans, etc?

Like a lot of people, I don't want to put up blanket restriction on residents passing through domestic/residential land but am unsure what measures - if any - would be needed under the current proposals re access to adult content, etc.

Many thanks,
Dave.

No, adult content is basically for clubs, freesex lots etc. Your own home is private. (as far as privacy exists in SL)

Mandy C

Eh, I wouldn't be so sure of that until we get some clarification from LL.

One of my favourite spots has a large chunk of Hermann Hesse inscribed on a big slab. That's adult content if you ask me. As would be Schopenhauer, Kant, Russell, Durkheim, etc etc.

The worst you'd see in a club would be a topless/nude avie.
Two people wanting to be intimate in their home are likely to go well beyond that.

It makes rational sense that the first should be adult, and the second is simply a private, moment, but strictly speaking you're producing adult content in both cases.

And what if one of them is an escort? Is that still private? Or is it adult?

I don't think we should expect too much nuancing from LL, and the general rule will probably turn out to be that if it involves or hints at sex then it's adult, whether it's a "porn service", or simply a couple being intimate.

lol, thanks I needed this!

lol, thanks I needed this! Where is this place?

I have no idea how this will happen. Probably ARs. LL will have the final say of what is adult content or not so I hope they put out a list.

Let's look at what they use in movies..

Hey -

Will we be getting a new flag called "Adult Content". Or are they only refering to the Mature Flag?

Right now the flag is "Mature Content" and has been definied - very recently- to mean not PG for the About Places dilema.

They never spell out a second Flag that I can see, but I may have missed it. If there is no second flag - these distinctions between Mature and Adult are moot for the time being.

They never seem to specifically make any point to say "Adult" is different than "mature". There is Robin's comment about explicit which is a response not a policy comment which would SUGGEST there might be a difference.

Perhaps this is part of the granularity they suggested.

So like if you had a skin shop youd be flagged Mature
If you owned a Strip club youd be flagged Mature and Adult.

Until these multiple flags (if they will exist) happen - you will have to label everything Mature.

Interestingly - If you have your land flagged "Mature" and there will be a new flag - then you will be letting in by default people not age verified to see your Mature content.

Will we get an aditional flag to block non age verified people (like we have now for unverifieds) for mature but not "adult" content?


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And why isnt a place you have sex, such as your home "ADULT"? - just becuase there's no audience?

Does sex somehow become less explicit becuase no ones watching?

And your sex partner who might not be age verified - participating in Sexually explicit acts with you - would that not also be Adult Content?

PG - no adult stuff
Mature/adult - even a tiny bit of adult stuff.
If you have that sexgen out, yes, you'll have to flag your area adult. If you have ANY sort of adult activity (even a mature discussion on politics), Boom! you'll need that flag.

We don't know this yet. There hasn't been any sort of official guideline issued at to what does or doesn't have to be flagged, so how about we stop all the rumor mongering until we know some more facts?

I believe that private residences won't need to be "adult" flagged, even if landowners engage in private adult activity. After all, the entire grid is restricted to adults already; anyone LL identifies as a minor is kicked out. I believe the flag is for parcels of land that are designed for x-rated activity of any sort.

Certainly my opinion matters (as does yours, reader), since LL has said they are leaving it up to our judgment to interpret this.

In the future, abuse reports may guide LL. Who would AR someone for what they're doing in what passes for the privacy of their own virtual home?

-Prudes
-Anti SL Sex people
-Nosy Busy-Bodies
-Jilted ex lovers
-Enemies
-Griefers

I agree it is far too soon to be getting as upset as many people are here in the forums BUT I do not think its too soon for LL to start clarifying what is and what is not "Adult Content".

There are many SL businesses that are not Porn that may well be adversly affected by this new verification and it is not too soon for those businesses to start adapting their business plans to compensate.

i don't really see a difference. pixelslapping is pixelslapping, whether it's taking place at home, in the park, or on the counter at the local Post Office.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/04/age-and-indentity-verification-in-second-life/#comments

I started a thread a few minutes ago with same question - basically - and it may have sounded tongue in cheek but it is quite serious. I am a Neko - a female cat. My female partner is also a Neko. My male partner who is OUR shared partner is a Satyr and a Unicorn. Our daughter is a Vampire. Yes, so far a pretty typical SL family!
But will we all NEED age verification if linden decides that Mythiality and Nekoality are illegal? Are we going to corrupt US youth if they come on line?
Where is line drawn for Linden over all this??
We must keep up this barrage of questions so that Linden is befuddled.
P.S. Satyrs are fantastic and generous partners. I do wish he quit playing those bloody pipes.
Unicorns have to be ridden every morning if you know what I mean.

I have to really agree here - theres no difference.

There used to be people who said you could have SL sex in PG homes with your banlines up and windows closed - but it seems from the CS - thats not allowed.

If you have sex with someone on your land - you are providing explicit sexual content to them on your land.

If you have sex on someone else's land according to Danny Linden, the Land owner is providing Explicit sexual content to whoever your having sex with. And of course your being provided explicit sexual content from the land owner - since whover you are having sex with is having sex with you.

Thus if you have sex balls in your home you should flag yourself as adult - if only for your own safety.

Second to that you should keep people off you land I suppose.

Now the question will people AR you for this stuff? Do you get pulled over for going 55 in a 50? Not often but it will happen.

Unless they come back and tell us sexually explicit content does not include private sex in people's homes.

Since they wont even define nudity - Im not holding my breath for them to do that.

Don't forget having to undergo verification you are, in fact, a cat surfing the internet and not some human engaging in dirty and immoral childmind-warping nekoplay. Start coughing up these hairballs, they'll need to be mailed as evidence soon...

So, if people need to label their own private *residential* parcels as adult because some newb might be flying along and see a bewb, then the whole "banlines are killing Second Life" problem is about to get several orders of magnitude worse (at least for people that prefer PG content), right?


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It's probably deeper than that -- if you mark the parcel "adult" then you would logically need to get yourself verified just to be able to enter it again, otherwise by the way system is designed you cannot be granted access to adult area without age verification...

Since LL is stating that the land owner is legally and morally responsible for anything that goes on on their property the only safe option is to flag ALL property owned as Adult Content. This will prevent some underage unverified person from wandering on to your land and dropping their pants and flashing someone thereby landing you in jail. Of course when people discover that because of this they can go almost nowhere in SL without making themselves a target for identity theft SL will promptly go belly up.

The problem is that they are trying to shield themselves from possible legal action. The definition of what is and is not adult content is therefor not up to them but is determined by what some court may decide is "porn" (I can't define it but I know it when I see it). So in that case they would have to error on the side of caution and any and all acts that may in anyway be considered sexual in nature or intent would have to be flagged as adult content. The simplest remedy for them would be to declare all of SL adult content and require age verification of everyone.

Oh, wait, according to their TOS you must be over 18 to be on the main grid, so I guess they really don't need to do anything more.


Oops, I forgot, in their infinite wisdom they decided to let people in with no verification of anything.

Nevermind.

There are just so many questions and little to no answers, which may be intentional on the part of LL. Given past statements by Philip and the extreme libertarian nature of SL, I sincerely doubt this is an attempt to kill off sex in SL. Having re-read the announcement several times, what does seem clear is that the legal responsibility for flagging adult content is being moved to the parcel owner. There is no way LL can enforce the adult content flag based on the size of SL, so the owner of Susie’s BDSM Sex Club chooses not to flag the parcel, any legal action that might come about becomes the parcel owner’s responsibility. I’ve no doubt that there will be a few morality vigilantes looking for commercial parcels that have not been flagged, but I don’t see anyone deciding to go on a mission reporting people with sexgen beds in the skyboxes. It also seems logical that people would be a able to stand on a non-adult flagged parcel and still be able to purchase animations from a vendor located on a neighboring parcel because of camera abilities. In order to truly shut down access to adult content, LL would have to remove all ability to camera pan into an adult flagged parcel without verification. I’m not sure I see this happening, or if it does happen, everyone who has clamored for real privacy will finally get their wish – at the price of age verification.

In the long run, the verification seems to remove the liability of LL for the adult content of SL, shows that they made a token attempt to keep adult content away from the tender eyes of minors (who will already witness 200,000 violent acts on television before they turn 18, but we will ignore that hypocrisy).

Legal question:

Public decency laws seem to protect the owners on private property, the only thing I could find on short notice is this:

(ii)The different elements of the offence can be summarised as:
(a) The act committed must be of a lewd, obscene and disgusting nature (the meanings of these terms overlap); "Lewd" means 'lustful or indecent'; "Obscene" - means 'morally repugnant or depraved' and "Disgusting" - means 'repugnant or loathsome'.
(b) The act must be capable of outraging public decency.
(c) More than one person must have been able to witness the act.
(d) Reasonable people must be able to venture out without the risk of outrage to minimum standards of decency, therefore the act must be in a place where there is a real possibility that members of the general public might witness it.

So, a RL couple having sex on private property are protected within the law from charges of public indecency if someone wandering by looks in the window. In theory, anyone bumping pixels in a skybox is thus protected since one needs special gadgets in order to reach most sky builds, which renders a skybox outside the probability that the general public would be wandering by. The rules would be much less clear on adult activity happening at ground level...

Somebody page Jake Reitveld, he might be able to expand further on the topic.

A lot of interesting viewpoints, and I can see the points of both sides. But I think everyone needs to take a step back, and get some perspective. This is a 3d animated game, or platform, depending on your terminology. Nobody is going to prison over a digial boob.

By introducing age verification, LL has shifted all the responsibilities to the users. Most of the underage will be removed from the grid. The only ones that remain will be the ones that choose not to verify and those that cheat. By cheating, the onus is on them. If they see adult content, it's their fault for cheating, not mine. If they don't verify, they STILL aren't supposed to be on the grid, according to the TOS. If they see adult content, again, it's their fault. This will not change anything I do in SL at all whatsoever. I'll have all the sex I want in my house and nobody can tell me I can't.

Your post is a very good and makes me think..

but I do have a concern-

Since my property in Second Life isnt really property but a website - as was so pointedly presented to me recently- why does any public lewdness or eavesdropping concerns enter into it?

Legally it seems my Property is a Website on a domain hosted by Linden Labs.

That being the case - whether I do things privately, wont matter.

And if they do matter - it would only matter if I was the only one there, any additional person would be a visitor to my "website".

Now - Maybe my thoughts are wrong on this. Id love Linden Labs to clear some of this up. I do not know how many real life parrallels can be drawn I guess.