The secret government has captured genuine angel spirits with alien technology that keeps them in a magnetic cage for years. Be prepared to see angel traps along all the sidewalks. Cast your vote against this.

However, in the last week, it’s been in the news for a whole different reason. “Report Mainz”, an investigative news programme on German TV network “ARD” recently discovered evidence of a child pornography ring operating within Second Life. Initial investigations presented to Linden Lab, operators of Second Life, showed images of an male adult and female child avatar (operated by a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman respectively) engaged in sexual activity. Further investigations by ARD unveiled images that were claimed to have been located in Second Life showing real world child pornography.

Unlike many other online environments, all content in Second Life is created and uploaded by its users. No material is checked unless it is reported by another user to Linden Lab for investigation as breaking some part of the Community Standards. Whilst most players enjoy this freedom to build their own world, with that freedom comes responsibility - and, as this article shows, sometimes that freedom crosses legal boundaries .

Under the Community Standards clause of ‘material which may be considered broadly offensive’, Linden Lab took immediate action and banned the two accounts that were shown as partaking in adult/child sexual activity. The news report [1], which featured an interview with Robin Harper, Linden Lab’s Vice President of Community Development and Support, shows her visibly shocked upon being shown the images, and although the commentary is overdubbed in German, clearly saying “those are not avatars” (at around 5 mins 50).

The images of real children have, however, been handed over to a state attorney in Halle, Germany. Despite several requests, at the time of this writing Linden Lab have not been provided with the location and/or names of those involved in distributing the real images by the TV company or state authorities, which would enable them to take the necessary action in getting this material removed.

One of the greatest attractions of Second Life to many people is the ability to customise every part of your avatar and the environment in which it operates, rather than being tied to a set amount of activities, items and places to explore through ‘level grinding’. This open-ended nature is a large part of what has made Second Life so popular. Many people use this freedom to explore various facets of roleplaying - for example a large Victorian/Steampunk themed area of land known as “Caledon”, and a group of Star Trek fans that have built a replica of the USS Enterprise and operate Starfleet Academy training programmes.

However, another popular roleplaying activity in Second Life is what has become known as ‘ageplay’, where a player takes on the form of a child avatar. This has many facets; often to become part of a ‘family’ (a concept that proved popular in The Sims Online, and is indeed a main feature of the Sims series of offline games) or simply to be ‘different’ and express perhaps a missed childhood in a therapeutic manner. Much of this form of ‘ageplay’ is totally innocent and really quite fun - however it is unfortunate that a small group of individuals whose tastes have instigated moral and legal debates have given this whole group a bad name. It cannot be stated too clearly that not all ageplayers are paedophiles, and that there is a big distinction between “general ageplay” and “ageplay involving sexual activity”. Several residents have suggested new terms for innocent general roleplay as children, such as “Family Play”, in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the minority that partake of sexual activity.

Robin Harper of Linden Lab stated on a recent blog entry [2] about the allegations, “Linden Lab has absolutely zero tolerance for depictions of child pornography within Second Life. We were outraged to see the images that ARD showed us, and will cooperate fully with any legal authorities that choose to investigate the individuals involved in such activities. Child pornography is, of course, illegal and as such is a breach of our Terms of Service. It goes without saying that anyone engaged in this activity will be permanently banned from Second Life, and subject to legal consequences.”

One aspect that the various media coverage seems to have ignored is that anyone who has spent any time online will be aware that there are sexual predators out there taking advantage of the anonymity of the internet - and that this problem is most definitely not a “Second Life” problem by any means. There are many documented cases of problems on MySpace [3] and various chatrooms where those under the age of 18 have been ‘groomed’ by adults with less than wholesome intentions. Even in ‘World of Warcraft’, having created a female dwarf Warrior (right), within 5 minutes I was approached in private message by another user stating “u r hott, wana make out?” The fact that I may not have been female, let alone actually interested, clearly didn’t even cross this person’s mind.

Back in June 2006, the decision was made by Linden Lab to remove the ‘credit card verification’ step from its account creation process, enabling anyone to explore Second Life and completely disregard the age limit if they so choose. At the time, a large portion of the community decried this move as irresponsible - whilst another group praised Linden Lab for fulfilling its perhaps whimsical dream of ‘access to all’. Whether or not those against the move will be proven right, or whether this is merely an isolated incident, only time will tell. Whilst certainly there is a lot of ‘adult material’ to be found within Second Life, much stronger - and certainly in many cases less legal - material can be accessed much more easily on the internet by anyone with a credit card, and it must be remembered that the majority of viewings of pornographic material are actually when the user has specifically gone searching for it.

A recent, apparently unconnected, announcement [4] [5] [6] from Linden Lab was its intention to introduce a voluntary verification scheme for users to be able to verify themselves as over 18 via a third party service, in order to access areas labelled as containing ‘adult activity’ by the landowners. Whilst some form of verification, mostly in order to keep underage players (who should not have been there anyway) away from inappropriate material, has been asked for by many players for a long time - especially since the removal of verification - this has been met with mixed reactions from some residents who feel that such verification is intrusive, and concerns have been raised in many areas about sharing personally identifiable information such as passport, drivers license or social security/ identity card numbers internationally, especially in countries such as Canada where it is prohibited by law to do so. Whether or not that announcement is connected with the forthcoming opening of the official “Playboy Island” remains to be seen.

Recent statistics [7] available for April from Linden Lab show that currently only 29.49% of Second Life players are from the US; the remainder being from elsewhere in the world, including 10.37% from Germany, 7.76% from France and 6.25% from the UK. Even Antarctica is represented in the statistics with 0.04% of signups! Clearly, for such a global operation managed as one simultaneous environment, it is very difficult to enforce US laws and cultural norms on the 71.51% of the playerbase that is from the rest the world.

Under American law [8], digital images that represent children engaged in sexual activity, but where no children are actually involved (such as an avatar operated by an adult, or photoshopped) are not considered ‘child porn’. However, German law does not make this distinction.

As nobody ‘owns the internet’, in activities of any kind where international boundaries are crossed, there is naturally a conflict of whose rights take precedence, as recent investigations regarding online gambling have shown. The US Court of Appeals [9] ruled in November 2002 that the Federal Wire Act prohibits electronic transmission of information for sports betting across state lines, but affirmed a lower court ruling that the Wire Act “in plain language” does not prohibit internet gambling on a game of chance. This is, however, an ongoing argument [10].

In discussions on a number of community sites, a number of US based players have shown concern that their ‘rights’ are being taken away by Linden Lab taking actions based on the laws of another country in taking a stand against ’simulated’ child pornography, with the thought being “what, or who, is next”?

As Second Life has drawn in many large real-life corporations to have a ‘presence’, as well as attracting musicians like Suzanne Vega, Duran Duran and Regina Spektor to run live concerts in-world, there is also a concern that these allegations could cause some organisations to rethink their presence and leave, or put off new companies from setting up a presence. Gwen Stefani recently lost a multi-million dollar sponsorship package with Verizon [11] because her opening act, hip-hop star Akon, was unwittingly involved in a simulated on-stage sexual act with a girl who turned out to actually be 15 and had used fake ID to get into the ‘18+’ event - even when things are not actually really your own fault, ‘guilt by association’ can often be just as damaging to you or third parties

One popular opinion amongst many Second Life players is that, consenting adults, in the privacy of their own home, should have the right to undertake whatever behaviour they wish, as “roleplay”, and that the authorities (usually the US government, although in this case Linden Lab) have no right to interfere or implement restrictions. However, the installation screens on “World of Warcraft”, whilst explaining the various realm and play style options available, states that roleplay servers are where players are “expected to act out their character as though he/she really exists”. Anyone who has spent any time roleplaying in a tabletop Dungeons and Dragons game, for example, would agree that their character is very much ‘real’ to them. Whilst there are, naturally, various degrees that people take their roleplay to (the fully user customisable and immersive environment of Second Life perhaps allows this to a greater extent than many other online worlds), the boundaries of ‘real and virtual’ can easily become blurred, and can have real life ramifications - such as the Chinese gamer who stabbed and killed a friend who sold a rare sword that he had let him borrow in an online game. [12]

Naturally, the investigations, both by Linden Lab and law enforcement agencies in the US and Europe are ongoing, and as such very little additional information is being released about its progress. However, in the modern world where media sensationalism rather than a balanced view is what makes headlines, it would be only too easy for Second Life to become known as ‘the place where they have child porn’, which would most likely result in its demise. The story has been spread across many media outlets around the world, including the BBC [13], Reuters [14] and the New York Times [15].

So what can the average user do, in any online environment, when they come across things that are clearly illegal, or at the very least questionable in nature? The simple answer is to report it and let the company that operates the game handle it. Most games have a function where you can send a question to support or report problems. State clearly the location, the name(s) of those involved, exactly what has happened and why you believe it is a problem. Remember that nobody has the right to make you feel uncomfortable at any time or for any reason online, especially when involving real world laws being broken.

The majority of players come online to escape the pressures of the real world. Whether it is in Second Life building a replica of a local landmark, in World of Warcraft slaying demonic beasts, or in Toontown collecting jellybeans… it should always be fun. Having fun also involves being, and staying, safe.

For more information, there’s a great guide on simple ways to protect yourself online here.

ajdown@jp
Stratics Second Life Portal Manager

“Michael Linden: “You can certainly use other systems, with or without also using “mature” flags, sure.”

Prokofy Neva: “but what is the liability for a landlord who has not checked off land as containing graphically sexual or violent content, and then a tenant puts out this content and is AR’d? Will LL go after the landlord over his ownership of the land or the tenant for ownership of the content?”

Michael Linden: “Neither. It’s “strongly encouraged” and “voluntary“. “

Please note the bolded statements. Flagging your land as adult and blocking unverified visitors is completely voluntary regardless of content. Someone could come along and abuse report you if they wanted to, but there is no consequence, there is no punishment, it is NOT required. This is in Michael Linden’s own words.”

Id like to know is this really true? will there really be no consequences if we choose not to flag? no deleted or blocked acounts, no abuse reports forcing us to verify if someone sends an abuse, no taking our land from us, or other reprimands?

please give us a honest answer lindens..pleasee? because from the blog and the help files i could not find this information!

Something to think about

I went from 20-30 sales a day to 2-3.

I used to make around 400 USD a month and now I feel like im making more from referrals and stipends (WTH?)

The current way is hurting so many people can’t you roll it back?

The catch with this current way is you have to be rich to stay rich…

How can new folks ever hope to catch up. You need to shell out hundreds of thousands to make it in the classifieds and campers to even be on the front page. It’s really counter productive and soon people wont be able to keep their sims open because they wont be found.

Roll this search back until you have the quirks figured out to make it a fair search engine.