Can anyone point me to landowner legal responsibilities, USA/Euro/???

Now, noted, my sims aren't exactly the first destination for those looking for the skank underbelly of Second Life.

But I'm no expert on law... is there any general body of knowledge here that outlines what Joe Average should know about US / EU / other laws concerning children and the internet?

I'm going to be very reluctant to restrict access to my sims - I'm one of the fortunate ones without any significant amount of XXX content (as far as I know - I don't go peeking into skyboxes, and it would take days to explore them all even if I tried).

Trying to form a pragmatic, reasonable basis for moving forward rationally here; I have a lot of tenants and no wish to alienate them, but at the same time I don't want the Belgian Rape Police sending me nasty emails.

Not that I would do this, but hypothetically, would it be sufficient for a sim owner to:

1) Simply ban XXX content, but of course not search door-to-door,
2) Whatever anyone set out would then be their responsibility, not mine?

* * * * *

I personally could care less about 'adult' stuff in SL. But I feel about as liable as the Company in a case like this - how could I possibly know what's in my sims?

I'm effectively a service provider. Caledon will have capacity for 202500 prims once my next sim arrives. You can miss a LOT of noob prim dongs in a haystack like that!

If I miss a badly made noob sculptie dong that I'm not even looking for, is some obscure Inspector Clouseau from the RL Grand Duchy of Gadfly going to start an international incident with "Desmond Shang"?

Or, what if a shrubbery looks a bit too suggestive? For that matter, the observation deck is rather 'well hung' from Caledon's Skycity... where does it end?

I guess it ends when you decide you've had enough of this crap from Linden Lab Desmond?

I mean, how happy are YOU about the prospect of having to provide confidential information about yourself to an unknown 'verification service', when LL already have your CC details and have processed many transaction through it over the last few years - which proves both your age, and that's it's really your card?

I know for me it's a step too far. Especially when the ones it should be aimed at are the legions of unverified people LL invited in against the wishes of the bulk of the original residents wishes.

It's not an unknown service, it's pretty well known by now. And seeing what I just saw about how they use the data gathered as part of their "targeted marketing" service, I am quite anxious to see the privacy policy as it applies to this new identity verification service.


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It'll be a 'known service' when I see an offical Linden Lab announcement of the name and url of the service they are using

Desmond, I would just go with leaving up to the tenants since you have not designated your sims as xxx. I think xxx sims will start popping up and any of your tenants (unlikely) who have xxx items will open a store there.

I don't think this is meant to cover SL sex between consenting Avs. I think it is meant to protect LL in the same way that ID checks are done in bars and adult films in RL.

Personally I would just ignore this until we have more info to go on; by the time you are concerned about suggestive bushes, you need to make a cup of tea.

Or the statue of David, for that matter (I will admit to crashing the ornithopter the first time I flew by him ). Or a fair bit of the art we have about. I am not being silly (for a change)--in the USA, at least, there have been a number of censorship attacks on art and books perceived as pornographic by the unlettered.

I think you have some very valid concerns here, but I am no legal expert. In a sensible world, you would have no liability as LL is assuring you that only adults are allowed in SL. But I am afraid we do not live in a sensible world.

there's no firm policy about it yet.

european laws are fairly odd, mostly preferencing real life establishments, where you have to flip your ID to have access to content. This works for me, because I can show my passport. But what woman goes to an XXX place... just about none!

(is this the time to say Beate Uhse is now in SL? lol) To have access to hard core pornography, generally requires forking over real life personal data. Dongles have become the method of choice for x-check. And sites without it, generally get sued by child protection services that have their hand in the pot with the protection schemes. (there's one case where one is actually the subsidiary of the other)

I feel I am correct in calling it a protection racket.

I've said it before, I don't want to be in pure XXX places, nor do I want to be in PG areas. SL's great allure was that it was "Second Life" - I could choose to express my sexuality, how I chose, like in real life. Not being forced to deal with the kinds of people who populate XXX areas, but not be forced to PG disneyfication if I didn't want it, either.

As far as you're concerned Desmond - probably just leaving the sims mature will be enough, and letting the land owners handle their own business, and acting like a service provider - pass the buck down to the people visiting the sims. US law so far backs you up on acting like that, so I wouldn't be concerned. Someone in Belgium isn't going to have a very easy time suing you for content that's perfectly legal in your jurisdiction.

If you take an active part in regulating it, you become responsible for it. If you don't, you're not. LL is doing that pretty much too, but its crappy they don't put it on the VISITORS like they should be doing, instead they are doing it to other service providers and businesses down the line, which simply isn't the way the rest of the net works...

I guess I will see it out. I'll probably verify myself, but I sure as heck am not going to flag my store for a few skins as adult, especially when none of the other skin sellers are doing it either.

I guess this is the time I say

SL really really REALLY needs a "netnanny" client.

Anyone up for the challenge? Make people who don't want to see adult content use a different client for SL, one geared for PG content.

Make them actively look for it and download it. Maybe make it so we can flag our land so people with these clients can't access our land.

If you're underage and using a full SL client, it's YOUR problem.

Leave the rest of us with our full featured clients and our full featured land which we pay full price for. :/

Well, I think I have an in on the ground-floor of the next profitable SL accessory....

...Alpha fig-leaves, anyone?

Maybe they should be able to gaurentee that the "bits" in question won't be erased from inventory, or found sticking out of one's ear after a tp. THEN hold people accountable for having them out in public. /shrugs.
But wouldn't that cause a number of welcome centers to no longer qualify anyway? Why shoot themselves in the foot. Silly waste of time.