Comments on Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual PedophiliaTypePad2016-01-15T18:38:38ZSLHamlethttps://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/tag:typepad.com,2003:https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2016/01/vice-second-life/comments/atom.xml/Former SL resident commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01b7c8088ecb970b2016-01-16T13:49:32Z2016-01-16T13:49:32ZFormer SL residentLinden Lab enforces the ageplay rule so well it does not even care to check whether an abuse report is...<p>Linden Lab enforces the ageplay rule so well it does not even care to check whether an abuse report is based on fact or created out of spite, and they ridiculously allow for a terminated account's owner to appeal only to reinstate their decision and close the account for good.</p>
<p>No wonder the media continue to put the pedophilia stigma on Second Life. When a company earns a bad reputation and does not do anything except humiliate their customers and ruin their own reputation with no right to appeal, the stigma is more than well deserved.</p>
<p>I personally remember what LL did when the scandal was brought up in 2006: first they defended the right of their residents (all adults) to do whatever they pleased (and that included canninbalism, shooting, bestiality, you name it), then reversed their decision and decided to punish only one particular category, the age players, leaving all the others alone, in the hope that appeasing some vocal moralists would create more business but effectively conceding they were in the wrong. There is nothing they could, can or shall do to prevent the stigma to stay forever. And I would venture to suggest this is probably one of the secret reasons for replacing SL with Project Sansar.</p>Dirran Skytower commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01b8d1926aef970c2016-01-16T03:43:59Z2016-01-16T03:43:59ZDirran SkytowerSecond Life has managed to mess up most use cases. How many thriving SLEEK users are there? How many SLEEKs...<p>Second Life has managed to mess up most use cases. </p>
<p>How many thriving SLEEK users are there? How many SLEEKs were ever actually sold?</p>
<p>How many educational institutions remained or returned through the off again on again discount fiasco?</p>
<p>How many regions are locked up in under the counter discounts with large landowners that are unavailable to individual users? What is the actual cost SL incurs in providing a region and what is the relationship to the price charged to undiscounted users?</p>
<p>I believe the phone system is occasionally used by criminals. There is no call to shut down the phone lines in response.</p>
<p>Linden Lab did probably move too slowly on virtual child abuse but it banned the practice almost a decade ago. As early as 1992 the US supreme court excluded child pornography from the ambit of free speech because it is inherently exploitive, so it is not as if the company could argue in 2007 that virtual child abuse was free expression. Continuing to refer to virtual child abuse as 'age-play' is probably part of the problem.</p>
<p>The real problem this blog post identifies is not occasional critics of Second Life in the media, but that the company's reaction to these critics is to stare into space. And that this blog's invariable response is to hint at illegitimising one of the few use cases the platform actually supports reasonably well.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks, as this blog appears to argue, that SL could survive as an adult content free zone may care to search You Tube for Elderly Man River by Stan Freberg.</p>Ezra commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01bb08ad1850970d2016-01-16T02:14:27Z2016-01-16T02:14:27ZEzra"As I explained last year, Second Life is still saddled by this reputation (and this new Vice story will only...<p>"As I explained last year, Second Life is still saddled by this reputation (and this new Vice story will only help renew and solidify it)."</p>
<p>No, the Vice story describes an old problem, then immediately describes the solution Linden Lab put in place. This is night and day from what you do; you'll link an Anshe Chung flying penis video and not bother to describe the countermeasures available then (rez rights) and everything that's been implemented since (content filtering, new ratings system). You should aspire to be as thorough and fair.</p>
<p>Second Life deserves a lot of the reputation it has, but thankfully there's journalists out there that bother to present progress since more sordid times. </p>Iggy commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01b7c8086d29970b2016-01-16T00:59:16Z2016-01-16T00:59:16ZIggyhttp://iggyo.blogspot.comSL's bad rep among many non-SLers draws eyeballs. That's why this story got any traction. In my more Vonnegut moments,...<p>SL's bad rep among many non-SLers draws eyeballs. That's why this story got any traction.</p>
<p>In my more Vonnegut moments, I imagine Wall Street's Masters of the Universe, trading in their pin-stripes for school-girl and tentacle-monster outfits. High above lower Manhattan's rush-hour roar, a very strange afterwork party begins...</p>
<p>Humans are curious monkeys with often runaway glands. I'm not defending pedophilia, but consenting adults have always done bizarro things behind closed doors. Or out in the open. And to 20-somethings, like those Vice readers, older folk having sex is inherently bizarro. Apparently Vice needed to pump up their story that way.</p>
<p>I do wonder if the sex is not in Sansar, will it thrive?</p>Clara Seller commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01b7c80856f0970b2016-01-15T20:35:37Z2016-01-15T20:35:40ZClara Sellerhttp://profile.typepad.com/6p01b7c7f4b099970bHonestly, I thought that SL has done a pretty good job with this kind of thing. Seems this blog has...<p>Honestly, I thought that SL has done a pretty good job with this kind of thing. Seems this blog has sliced and diced this subject over and over.</p>
<p>Maybe it's a good idea for Sansar to really clamp down hard and be like a North Korean Disney. I'm totally okay with that. I think it will be incredibly lucrative because most people spending $600.00 on an Oculus are probably looking for restrictions.</p>zz bottom commented on 'Vice Highlights Second Life in Story on Virtual Pedophilia'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01bb08acf436970d2016-01-15T19:42:23Z2016-01-15T19:42:23Zzz bottomI do think that Bethesda name is much more spoken off then SL in that article and in no way...<p> I do think that Bethesda name is much more spoken off then SL in that article and in no way i read any thing implying that Sl was a paradise for pedophiles but the opposite as a community.<br />
And <br />
Quoting:<br />
when a private company enables extreme free expression without any thought of the social ramifications, it puts its own brand and larger userbase in jeopardy.<br />
Unquote.<br />
That is a rational thought of someone that really never lived under a regime that does not allow freedom of speech.</p>