Linden Lab begins ageplay crackdown By PHOENIX PSALTERY
Staff writer
It appears that Linden Lab, perhaps at least partially in response to Dutch lawmakers’ threats of legal action, has begin a crackdown on depictions of ageplay on the Second Life grid.
On Wednesday evening, some residents whose businesses cater to that market began receiving a notecard created by Chadrick Linden that read as follows:
Dear Second Life Resident:
Linden Lab would like to inform you that your land or business is possibly not in compliance with Second Life's Community Standards. The depiction of sexual activity involving minors may violate real-world laws in some areas, and the Second Life community as a whole has made it clear that it views such behavior to be broadly offensive. Linden Lab chooses not to allow the advertising or promotion of age play or related activities in any public forum — including in-world textures, classified ads, the Second Life forums, or parcel descriptions.
Advertisements, promotions, or descriptions of such activities must be removed to avoid account sanctions.
Any account asserting an age that does not meet Second Life's minimum age of eligibility will be closed.
It appears that this sudden and seemingly unprecedented action is a departure from Linden Lab’s previous pattern of seeming to be very slow to act on the issue of underage residents as well as objectionable materials.
One question that remains, however, is just how far this will go. Some residents have expressed concern that LL might go so far as to say, “The grid is 18+ only, so no child avatars are allowed, even for innocent purposes,” or, on the other end of the spectrum, establishing a Big Brother-style policy of scanning private IM logs banning people who ageplay privately. Neither one is an appropriate course of action.
Robin Linden stated in a Jan. 25, 2005 post on the SL forums, “This is clearly a highly charged issue, and not easy to respond to in simple terms,” saying that if evidence of child pornography or abuse that involves children in the real world were to be found, that LL would act to protect the child and notify the appropriate authorities, and that the individuals involved, once it's proven that the exploitation actually occurred, would be banned from SL.
However, she went on to say, “There are people in SL who are role-playing as children engaged in sexual activities. There are no real children involved. 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… If this activity were in public areas… it would be viewed as being broadly offensive, and therefore unacceptable. What consenting adults do in private, however distasteful others may find it, is allowed under these standards.”
M2 staffer Marianne McCann is a Second Life resident who roleplays a child avatar who is part of a loving family, and is a strong part of the SL Kids community. When asked about the crackdown, she said, “Overall, I think it's good. I know it's something a lot of us kids have wanted for some time,” adding, “I need to clarify — and it’s one of my minor troubles with what was written today. The term ‘ageplay’ is not always a sexual one… I really look at this as a clarification of what Robin was saying. It basically is making it clear that SL and the community will not tolerate public sexual displays involving kids and adults together, and advertising them and stuff.”
She continued, “One of my concerns, though, is that it is also kinda vague, and might throw the baby out with, well, the other babies.
“My concern is that this could mean that legitimate kid businesses won't be able to advertise — especially skin vendors who deliberately avoid sexual ageplay stuff — and that people will assume that me being a kid here means I'm underage.”
McCann plans a story on this subject for next week’s M2.