Another Age Verification thread...with a small twist, or maybe a rant.

A year ago, Linden Lab opened the flood gates to non-verified, free account. This was purely a business decision on thier part, for they were looking for the magic number of 1,000,000 residents. All kinds of people from all walks of life made an exodus to this wonderful metaverse that we call Second Life.
All told though, us long time residents knew this was a mistake for the following reasons: a.) the number of those under 18 would increase far and above what is warranted, and b.) the number of free alt account would increase mass griefing.

Now, as for the griefing portion; I really don't see that much of an increase with the population; even though land and population have grown. But, the number of 12-17 year old kids getting on the grid, yes, I have noticed many, many of these...so yeah, age verification is a good thing. After all, I wouldn't want any child to be exposed to hard, sexually explicit RP, complete with all that SL has to offer.

I just have to ask...is charging the residents 10L or more for Linden Lab's short sighted mistake the right thing to do? After all, it was thier mistake over the objections of established residents. It's my opinion that LL should suck up the cost of this verification process instead of passing it off onto the residents. T'would teach them a lesson in good business practices.

Also, I know Daniel Linden said that Linden Lab won't store the information that we provide for verification. But, who's to say that Integrity Services won't keep that information for themselves; which, btw and I quote Daniel from the blog," Residents will be asked for
* a name
* address
* date of birth,
* and a passport or national ID number." (Does this include a full SSN or really just the last four?) This sounds like all the information that's need to steal someone's ID

Integrity can also sell off that information to junk mailer, spammmers, political action groups, or what not to other companies. An assurance by a Linden only holds true for Linden Lab...no one else. So...what assurances do we have that our information will be kept safe? I certainly don't hear anyone from Integrity Services countering that one. And even though they have a contract with Anheiser Busch, I'll bet you a lot of beer drinkers get a lot of junk mail too.

I'm a little leery of giving out the last four digits of my SSN, but really? My bank has it. My 401(k) company has it. The IRS has it. The credit bureaus have it. My credit card companies have it. My mortgage company has it. My employer has it. My insurers have it. They all store data electronically and often transmit it electronically.

Have you ever sent your tax return through the mail? What's to stop any unscrupulous postal employee from opening it and copying down your information? Ever pay a restaurant tab with a credit card? Don't you worry about the cashier copying down the number and the extra code on the back while it's out of your sight?

We all try to keep our information secure, but it's never a sure thing.

I'm really kind of taken aback at the panic some people here are showing. Yes, I do understand that those of us who choose to verify are being asked to part with some sensitive information, and I also am not convinced that it will really solve any issues there may be with underaged people on the adult grid, but I also don't think it's any more of a risk than mailing my tax forms is. Maybe less, since I have to put my entire SSN on those, and my income information too.

If it really makes you so nervous, then don't do it, and live with not being able to go to those parcels that require it. It's that simple.

You can fix a stolen credit card by cancelling it and you have protection against the charges incurred. But if you give up your SSN, or worse for non-US residents, your passport details or national ID number, then what are you going to do if someone steals your whole identity?

I think a lot of people are also concerned that the main business of the company SL picked to do the verifying, Aristotle, is selling personal data.

You do know that this already happens all the time. There are ways to fix stolen identities.

Yes but some people paid a yearly membership to be able to do those things and now they won't be able to.

Yes, and it can make loose all you have....

Morwen.

And it is enormously lengthy, costly and painful.

What I'm getting from reading these threads is a lot of "Hah! I'm all right! This is trivial! What are you moaning about?" from people with few commitments and little to lose (maybe mostly students). And particularly from people in the US, who seem to know little and care less about what may be the situation outside their borders.

The root problem here is LL's quest for quantity at the expense of quality. You see this in the free unverified accounts and in the policies that encourage legions of soul-less alts for camping or botting purposes. Anything to get the population numbers up. Really, if that's such an issue, they should just employ someone to spend their time creating a huge batch of spurious characters that only ever log on once and are then never seen again. It will get the "population" total up without adverse side effects.

Anyone who thinks age verification is going to stop griefing is wrong - it will be just as easy to create disposable griefer alts, they'll just not be verified.

But it seems LL still don't want to discourage this. Every griefer alt is another resident to boost the magic population count.

Well they can take my mortgage payments with my job, but good luck to them getting the house itself, rusty old clunker and the dog

Simply Create a Parental Control Key into the Prefferances Interface allowing PARENTS to be able to lock their underaged child out of SL.

Now SL has covered their backside.

The question when locateing an Underage Person in SL, WHY HAS THE PARENT ALLOWED THEIR UNDERAGED CHILD INTO A MATURE ELECTRONICAL ENVIRONMENT??

Place the resposibility in the hands it belongs in. do not make legal Loyal Legitimate members of SL pay an EXTORTION FEE FOR PROTECTION MIFIA STYLE.. Pay up or shut down.

Ummm, it is already there...

See that little check box next to "Remember Password"? Un-check it.

Now YOU are the only one that can access SL on your PC. an YOU have covered YOUR backside.

How simple was that?

Max

Which still will not stop them to create an account on their own, "borrow" creditcard (and soon passport) to verify all that is needed and they are in.

But you can give them a limited account on the computer which no rights to run certain software (SL in this case) and without the rights to install new software (we had this when my daughter was still under 18 and it worked very good).

Morwen.

Well no, they (we, as I'm also premium) pay the membership for other reasons. Unverified newbies and premium members are equally able right now to go anywhere on the grid. (Except for those parcels set to block unverifieds, but that has nothing to do with content.)

All the organizations you mentiojn have strict laws governing whom they may share that information with. And as to a restaurant emplyee copying that information, yes, its happened and they were also caught, prosecuted and jailed for it. Having someone commit an illegal act to obtain the information is alot different than giving it to a company that is in the business of supplying that information to interested third parties.

originaly posted by  Maximillian Desoto
        Ummm, it is already there...
See that little check box next to "Remember Password"? Un-check it.
Now YOU are the only one that can access SL on your PC. an YOU have covered 
YOUR backside.
How simple was that?

I am afraid it needs to Say "Parental Control" to legally be Parental Control

Funny. I don't have any problem at all preventing my child from surfing nasty areas of the Internet.

* The computer in her room is not allowed to access the Internet. Period. The house network and router locks her out.

* The two computers that DO have Internet access are in the living room and the family room, and in plain sight. We regularly check what is on her screen. And she knows good and well that if we ever caught her in an inappropriate game or website, she loses all computer access for at least a month. If I caught her providing false ID to a verification site, she won't have computer access until she turns 18 and moves out of the house. I might even press charges against her myself!

I don't need "Parental controls" built into my TV or my software. My "Parental Controls" are actually being present and paying attention to what she is doing.

Some of the people in these forums complain that the kiddies could get "verified" by stealing their parent's ID info and providing that. Well, you know what? In every civilized country that I know of, that is a CRIME, and can be prosecuted in court. Even if the thief is a minor. Compare that to "Oh, so I lied to some dorky game company on a website. Big whoop." The new system makes it a much larger risk.

Requiring them to provide real ID forces the kid to make a choice. It isn't just Lying to Linden Lab and risking losing their access to SL. If they steal daddy's driver's license and provide that as false ID, then they and/or their parents can GO TO JAIL when they get caught.

Personally, I am a responsible adult and I have no problem proving to a third party ID verification service that I am an adult. If they mis-use or leak the data that I give them, I'll sue them so badly that I'll never need to work another day for the rest of my life.

To be honest -

I hope this Age and Identification System ends up being enough.

I dont want in another 2 years to have to send my fingerprints or something.

And besides the real problem LL's age verification is so annoying is becuase people are uptight about Normal old Internet Porn and they are over-reacting.

You should be able to keep Porn away from your own kids without trying to change the entire internet.

Course some people want to keep porn away from their Significant Other too - which is another disaster.

I'm just so sick and tired of Linden Labs making decisions that we are against; and then having us pay and pay and PAY to mop up thier mistakes. It happens each and everytime we loose something in inventory that is lost from our inventories and is no copy...and LL's answer? "We are so sorry." and that is it...no compensation. And now, they want us to pay to verify our age, when the situation should never have happened in the first place??? Sort of makes me pull my roots, sell off my sim and be like 99% of SL...greedy and self centered.

*Places a vendor on some plot of land, sell off freebies and copybotted, bootleg items. Don't give any sort of support and just collect the money.*

Don't bet on it.

10L$ = US$0.04

probably the best deal for porn on the entire internet

that plus the potential of exposing more of your personal life than is really warranted...sure, great deal there.

i should state that i dont plan on doing it either, it already bugs me that anyone has my CC#

but the point of my snide comment was that you wanted LL to foot the bill, as if there was no other bad points to it, that 10L was a investment

The thing with age verification is that I'm not so sure "we" are against it. I see the same few dozen people complaining here over and over and over again, but I do not see a massive groundswell of opposition. From what I've seen, the vast majority of people either want it or don't care one way or the other.

Something on the order of 5,000 people signed Project Open Letter (including me), and I think that's a pretty significant number. I don't see 5,000 people, or even 500, getting worked up over this.

It is true, no argument, that Linden has not fixed some longstanding problems, and I too get tired of being thanked for my presumed patience on days when I can do nothing in-world because nothing is working right. However, if age verification serves to keep minors out of adult areas, and particulary if it keeps LL in good legal shape, then I think it is, on balance, better to have than to not.

(The people who are griping that it's just a "CYA move"may not appreciate how much legal hassle can be avoided that way. It probably is that, but so what? If it has the effect of protecting them from overzealous prosecutors, that's a good thing, no? It's like building a fence around your pool. It may not keep the neighborhood kids out, but at least no lawyer can tell a jury that you made no effort.

Overall, I think it's a hassle and I'm a little leery about the partial SSN requirement, but it's not the end of the world. Don't do it if you don't want to. It's not required.

Partial SSN for you Mickey, it's passport or full national identity card number for the majority who live outside the USA.