SL Bloggers Ponder Lindens' New Sex & Violence Regulations (But Not Much)

To be honest, when I wrote that certain kinds of sex and violence in Second Life is soon to be hidden behind a real life ID registration wall, I was positive the announcement would cause community turmoil. Protests, cries of censorship, widespread threats to leave, and so on. To judge by the Second Life blogosphere, however, I think it's fair to say the response has been muted, or even trending toward the positive. Certainly in comparison to say, the OpenSpace rebellion, or even the first time the Lindens proposed adult verification procedures, in 2007. My blog reader picks up feeds from something like 300 of the 1200+ active Second Life blogs, and in all truth, I can find just a handful of reaction, little of which is heated one way or the other.

dandellion Kimban, for example, expresses some concern about how the regulations will be enforced, but ultimately, judges it a necessary step: "[The Lindens] want all this less than we do. It cost them money and makes them additional work. But they have to do it." Uccello Poultry, who's sold Adult content herself -- "I operated an adult motel in Nangrim and sold porn next to someone else's strip club and a Brazilian casino" (!) -- is impressed by early Linden photos of the "Adult continent", and considers that a hopeful sign.  Perhaps the most concern comes from Second Life's art community, who wonder which of their works will end up in the nebulous gray zone -- containing sex and violent elements, but also cultural value which is supposed to exempt it from the Adult regulation.  Maybe.  (See my interview with the Linden lawyer, who says it would not apply to, for example, a Second Life recreation of the sexually explicit literary classic, Lady Chatterly's Lover.)  Unsurprisingly, metaverse art maven Bettina Tizza has compiled assorted opinions and trepidations from several leading SL artists and herself.

Perhaps the real controversies will only begin when the policy goes into effect this Summer, and the first test cases crop up (probably a day or two later.) Or maybe those who might have worried about this before, are now too wary (or too weary) to man the barricades so soon?

Comments

[Ann Otoole]

Word filters?

No biggie. How do you think BSG had evolved to say frack instead of the other banned word. All that will happen is people will change the vocabulary. Forced evolution of the spice!

[Loki Eliot]

DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE FRAKIN OPENSPACE THING AGAIN, I'M STILL HURTING!!!

[Nyoko Salome]

:0 i think although many of us (well, i do ;) consider the whole grid one big button marked 'click only if you are over 18', there's also the fact that, visually, it's 'one big shared webpage' inside. along with ad farmers and traffic-botters, this is something that, overall, seems to weight more pros than cons.

besides, we all know that it isn't -kids- that are making a fuss over this; it's adults with 'tender sensibilities'. for what it's worth, it will be the final 'shut up' to them over that... ;0

[Nexus Burbclave]

This has been one of the more drawn out rule changes. I wonder if we've reached a point where people on both sides of the issue are suffering from Adult Content Change fatigue.

[Ann Otoole]

Rezzable is closing more sims and "minimizing their expenses with LL".

The censorship is already active so adult related businesses can no longer place ads with words such as BDSM, Gorean, and fetish.

Clearly the intent is not to fence off adult material. The intent by Mr. Kapor is to totally censor Second Life.

It is baffling.

[Adric Antfarm]

Nexus is right. They should have ripped this off like a bandage instead this slow torture and endless public/blog open comment.

It would have been a hotter firestorm, but a memory by now.

No has changed their view from day one nor will they.

[Ciaran Laval]

I'm not seeing much positive reaction to this and the fact that LL's redefined PG classification is already being rolled back to their old definition shows there's a lot of protest about this.

This has been handled in an amazingly inept fashion, let's not forget that with Openspaces LL emailed owners, they're not doing anything like that with this issue.

Many people don't even realise the implications here, an island will have to be flagged adult if one parcel on the island sells adult content, that's going to cause problems.

If Linden Lab want to make this work they simply need to make it voluntary to move to Ursula and allow estate owners to flag parcels, rather than full islands as adult.

However that model doesn't fit in with making mature mainland PG. That's another implication people are going to be miffed about when the message hits home.

[Erbo Evans]

You're right, Hamlet, I haven't devoted the attention to this that I could have. I attempt to remedy the situation here.

TL;DR version of my post: "I Told You So."

[Adric Antfarm]

To show our disgust I say we all pack up and go with them. If anyone knows a really good place with hot stuff and room next door - let me know.

I have an adult business on one side of me and a damage enabled RPG on the other. I never see the pervs stomping by with automatic weapons in hand.

Other things, yes. Weapons, no.