Linden Labs Releases New Policy on Adult Content, Rioting Ensues

In previous posts I mentioned the curious phenomena I like to call the Kerfuffle Syndrome, where every 3-6 months Linden Labs makes an announcement that causes the vocal portion of the Second Life Community to go crazy, and not surprisingly it’s been 3 months since the last such announcement.  

Today Linden Labs announced that changes would be coming in regards to “Adult” content (Upcoming Changes for Adult Content) and as one might expect based on past experience there was a huge negative reaction with the usual threats of leaving SL, predictions of the collapse of  Second Life, etc.   This is both amusing in it’s predictability and sad because it demonstrates an overwhelmingly negative attitude by the vocal members of a community that usually claims an above normal concern for Second Life and its future.    But the mentality of the SL community is fodder for a future blog post, perhaps, but for the present I want to offer my take on this announcement.   I’m not a Linden Lab’s employee so this is pure speculation, but I think it’s pretty reasonable.

The current world has two types of Sim rating, PG and Mature.    As one might expect, a PG Sim should only have content that would be safe for your kid to see watching over your shoulder and a Mature Sim would have stuff that’s more R rated.    Up until now, the Mature Sims were also the homes of what would be considered XXX rated material as well, the much reported upon adult entertainment aspect of Second Life that consists of strip clubs, sex clubs, BDSM, Gorean roleplay and the like.   Based on the announcement from Linden Labs, I see a 3rd land rating type coming into play, the Adult Sim, which will offer a further distinction of mature vs explicit content.   Along with this will come some method of age verification so that this new Adult Sim rating can be restricted to only known real life adults, at least from a legal standpoint.   I see this as necessary for legal protection as opposed to a realistic expectation of being able to 100% restrict this content to adults, there’s always a way for an enterprising young person to work around restrictions.   This is about due diligence.  

This also will afford those adults who aren’t interested in the Adult aspects of Second Life the ability to keep out of areas so marked.   This will be especially important to those in Second Life from the educational community or the business community where their Second lives are more job related and they need to be circumspect about where they are seen in SL.   Some people see this as a prelude to merging the Teen Second Life Grid with the Main Grid, and that’s possible, but I think that’s only a small part of the reasons behind this, bottom line is that Linden Labs has to protect itself legally, they have to keep Second Life an inviting and safe environment to the educators, businesses and other entities who aren’t in SL running around asking every likely candidate “I can haz sex?”.

What does this mean to those people who engage in activities or run establishments that will be rated adult?   If you’re on a private island, probably nothing other than being required to change a setting on your island showing that it is an Adult rated sim.    If you’re on the mainland, then likely you’ll have to move to a sim with an Adult rating.   How Linden Labs handles this move will be critical, one would hope that they’d do a clean swap of land giving the person moving a comparable amount of land on new Adult rated sims and putting the swapped land on the Mature sim up for auction as they would abandoned land.

I think the only real critical issue here, and one that needs the most clarification, is what the criteria is that rates something as Adult vs Mature.    Some stuff is obvious, sex clubs, strip clubs, BDSM clubs aren’t difficult to classify, but there are some that sit on the edge.   For example, would an art gallery that displayed tasteful nudes be considered Mature or Adult?   My vote would be for a Mature rating and I suspect that Linden Labs will agree with that assessment.   Does everyone need to worry about having to take down their private skyboxes and throw away their fancy beds?  I don’t believe so, not if they are for private use.   Certainly, having a dungeon with any number of kinky items sitting at ground level might be over the edge and be an issue, but what if it’s at 3000m on Mature sim?   That will probably just be open to interpretation, handled on a case by case basis by Linden Labs.

So is this going to be a big deal?   Ultimately, I don’t think so.   The small time operators of sexually explicit establishments on the mainland will be the ones impacted, certainly, but I think the numbers of those affected will be low in comparison to the majority of Second Life residents.

And honestly, I won’t miss the BDSM club that’s near my land, though so far there’s been no issue with their games occurring while I’m around.   Certainly, I don’t want them screwed by Linden Labs, I hope they get an equitable land swap to a decent area on a new Adult sim.   In fact, I hope Linden Labs takes the time to set their Moles to work landscaping and making the new Adult mainland sims into pleasant looking places so that any hard feelings about having to relocate are offset by being moved to a nice looking location.

So, what do you think?   I’d love to see comments pro or con on the subject.

Kerfuffle

Well, it's been a while since I've written a blog post so I had planned on doing a fairly innocuous one this weekend but then a big kerfuffle arose about the upcoming SL5B the birthday celebration for Second Life. Having only been in SL for slightly over 1 year, I vaguely recall last years shindig.

The issue is, apparently, that Linden Labs has changed it's policy from past years on who it'll accept as an exhibitor and has excluded the community that uses child avatars and role play as if they are actual children, as well as the Gorean and BDSM communities.

Now I'm not one of those that feels that everyone has a right to participate in everything just by nature of their existence so I just can't work up any self-righteous outrage at this development.

However, I do think it's unfortunate that Linden Labs has decided to exclude exhibits by nature of the community building them instead of based on the *content* of the exhibit. I believe that content should be the deciding factor, not the group building it.

Certainly, Linden Labs has the right to dictate who participates in this celebration, it is after all their party and no one has the "right" to participate in that particular party if Linden Labs doesn't want them to. What the excluded communities do have the right to do is to create their own exhibition on their own land and use the channels available to them to advertise their presence and that's what I expect will happen, assuming those communities actually care that much.

The cynic in me has to wonder, if this whole thing started with the Goreans being excluded would the same level of outrage have been shown? Same question regarding the BDSM community? Somehow I doubt it. I seriously doubt you'd see the outrage that's hitting all the SL blogs right now if it had been one of the less savory communities that this had started with but because it was the cute, innocent "children" there is an uproar.

I want to be clear, I don't support or participate in any of these communities, nor do I want to see them excluded or banned or what have you. I understand the Goreans because I read the books some decades ago, when they actually had a plot other than slave sex. I know the BDSM community is out there, but I'm afraid I just don't get it nor do I want to. And the children, well, I think it's kinda strange at the level of role play it's taken to, but as long as it's not even remotely sexual then to each his/her own.

I certainly have no issue with someone wandering around the grid as a child avatar out of a sense of fun, no more than I have an issue with someone wandering the grid as a fox or a robot or Martian or an off-color llama. Expression is great, within reason (a big purple penis attached to ones forehead, while comedic is probably not within reason, IMO). I applaud all those whackos (and I say that lovingly) who wander the grid with unique avatars, sometimes I will indulge in my silly side and wander the grid with an avatar that's a little less boring than my normal one.

But do they have a "right" to participate in anything? Nope, sorry, I don't think they do and I don't think Second Life is "broken" because of it. We are all free to come and go in Second Life, it's a wonderful place, but if they should ban or just exclude all normal looking human avatars from participating in their events, well then I shall don one of my non-human avatars and continue on with my Second Life Adventure..........or just not log in any longer. But I don't expect Linden Labs to cry over losing me should I choose to leave, any one individual in nothing more than a tiny green dot on Linden Lab's map and if it disappears, there are plenty of others out there.

Bottom line, this seems to me to be another instance where we're making another mountain out of a molehill.

I guess the passion that the user community shows in these instances is exactly what makes Second Life unique. That a number of people that use Second Life become so engaged that they lose sight of the fact that it's just a software company creating a product, a product that's on the bleeding edge of technology and I suppose also on the bleeding edge of the online society that the Internet has brought about.

SL5B is supposed to be a celebration of Second Life having been around for 5 years, one has to wonder if there'll be a SL10B for folks to get all worked up over. I don't suppose we could just be happy that the silly thing has survived for 5 years?