Can’t Say “Teen” In Events

Linden Lab calls it’s grid for minors Teen Second Life, but you can’t use that name in the Events calendar. Here’s a couple of attempts at posting an Event - when will the fun ever stop?

 

#1 - What is the future of Second Life? If it’s to be the rebirth of Internet, is Linden Lab going about it in the right way? The original Internet has weathered the storms of negative publicity it encountered in the beginning unscathed, but LL seems to be less resilient and reverts to censorship, far-fetched identity verification plans and a “Teen” Second Life.

Is LL showing the way to the future or have they relinquished their spot among the avant garde due to lack of spine?

Robin Has Enough Of It

As I ran into another, as yet unclarified issue with posting my last Discussion Hour to the Events calendar, where my text* was refused and refused again until I had whittled it down to a single sentence, I decided to once more ask Robin for a clarification. Instead I got this:

Laetizia, I really, really don’t want to have this conversation again.

Well me neither, honestly. I am sick and tired of the subject and all the conflicting signals I have been getting around the Discussion Hours these weeks. But out comes the background:

I know you don’t agree that we should do this, but I’m afraid our lawyers disagree.

Right. Well I can’t argue with lawyers - everyone knows that is an impossibility. They don’t deal with language in the way a professional like me does, but in a deceptive way, to find loopholes and cover asses. So that’s what it’s all about. The Dutch say that you are contaminated by whom you deal with, and to illustrate that ancient wisdom, allow me to highlight one more point Robin made.

Laetizia Coronet: Robin, there is no list of forbidden words/ letter groups in Events?

Robin Linden: There’s no list of letter groups anywhere.

Laetizia Coronet: Robin, now really! I have proof of there being one. [I]n a test with Classifieds I got a notice saying ‘loli’ is a banned letter group. Now if that is one, there is a list.

Robin Linden: Loli isn’t a letter group in this context, it’s short hand for a role-playing character.

Note how she doesn’t mention words and instead sticks to the letter groups to debunk that and thus ignore the main question. Objection, Your Honor! No wonder she wanted to talk about voice instead - it’ll take away the ease with which we can read back and pick apart her slippery statements.

Our so-called leaders speak…

[...] But it’s the rhetoric of failure

(The Police, Spirits in the Material World, 1981)

There it is, on the Linden blog, with 100 mostly angry comments under it. Lots of misunderstanding, too, because indeed it is not really clear at all. ‘Broadly offensive’? One can’t help but wondering what exactly that is, especially when considering the very international populace of Second Life.

However, anyone who has seen the German TV report (here, with my translation of the text) can only conclude that those kinds of acts and images overstep all of our boundaries - save of course for the tiny minority which enters Second Life to engage in them. And although I am by nature a tolerant person I can only hope we will be able to stamp out such nastiness. And I am deliberately not mincing words there.

But Daniel’s write-up isn’t going to help at all. It is the rhetoric of failure indeed. What if you come across such behaviour? The German video makes it clear that you would first be invited to join, for a fee, which is where most of us would decline. Any report to Linden Lab will then be pointless - you wouldn’t have seen anything untoward. And anyway, your report would be added to the huge daily stack of abuse reports - the format of which doesn’t allow for much explaining or adding of proof either.

Linden Lab will need to get a more hands-on approach if they are going to save us from either the pervs or the sensationalist press. Right now there is virtually no enforcement of the Terms of Service. Why not get a group of volunteers to act as the eyes of Linden Lab, with a dedicated report channel, good feedback on what is and is not expected of them, but without special enforcement powers or uniforms or what-have-you.

I know it sounds like the Stasi. But there are ways to get around that, like discouraging the sending of off-duty reports, limiting their activities to the area appointed to them each time they ‘walk the beat’ and limiting their reports to the more serious violations of the Terms of Service. But before any of that can happen, Linden Lab will have to draw a much clearer line. ‘Broadly offensive’ is a rather meaningless catch phrase.

The Shocking Truth

Here is the German television’s report on child pornography in Second Life as reported on the official blog. I advise you all to watch this video in full - the sting is at the end. I warn you, the video contains blurred yet still rather graphic material. It is German spoken - even Robin (Linden) Harper is overdubbed. My translation of the text follows (I am a translator in Real Life). When I place text between square brackets [like this], it means I am not entirely sure of what is said. Please note that, while I have a good knowlegde of German, it is not part of my professional activities to translate it or indeed to translate into English.

Crashing a Linden

Baby furries came out in droves to the weekly office our of Robin Linden yesterday. My modest laptop couldn’t keep up with the slowdown connected to the massive gathering, spread out over two sims. Just before the start I got redmapped - I had a hell of a time getting back in to the sim south of Robin’s office area and couldn’t possibly enter the area itself. Since flying about went in leaps and bounds, there is no way I can reproduce the debate for you. Snippets, at best, about concerns relating to a notice issued by Linden Lab:

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.

Linden Lab

The reply read thus:

At 17:00 on March 8th, 2007, there will be a peaceful civil rights demonstration at the office of Robin Linden in protest of the sudden enforcement of restrictive and discriminatory ageplayer policies spurred on because of Fox News’ biased and slanted Video Blog Report.

Many harmless people are needlessly being pushed into the shadows merely for being “offensive”. SecondLife’s public image should not overshadow the founding principles it was founded on, especially when their blanket actions hurts the lives of many citizens of SecondLife who are causing no harm to other citizens.

As I said - no description of the debate is possible. But although I am absolutely no age play advocate and steer clear of such places, there are a few things to be said about the LL notice. First of all I wonder what the laws are in ’some areas’ and, of course, what areas are meant. Homosexuality is outlawed, too, in ’some areas’. Whether or not age play is your cup of tea is not the question. The question is first and foremost which concerns weigh heavier for Linden Lab - those of publicity and money or those of the freedom f it’s Residents? If a born-again Christian group offers to invest big time in SL ‘if all the sex is kicked out’ or ‘all the gay sims and clubs are closed’, are they going to comply as well?

The depiction of sexual activity involving minors may violate real-world laws in some areas - frankly I can live with that. I have no love lost for those who fantasize about having sex with minors, even if those minors are grown-ups in RL. But what about Linden Lab chooses not to allow the advertising or promotion of age play or related activities? Related activities such as… just being little kids, as a lot of these baby furries enjoy? They need to be more specific at LL.

Anyway, since there was hardly a debate anyway, and I couldn’t follow more than half of it, marooned as I was in Waterhead, offline or trying to move closer in an almost overloaded neighbouring sim, here’s a picture. Grey-out courtesy of Hewlett-Packard… I spotted three Lindens, by the way, and the presence of spike-headed security chief Chadrick Linden suggests why they were there (with the exception of Robin Linden of course, who was supposed to be there anyway).

I tried for more pictures, but I crashed and gave up. It was very late in Real Life Holland anyway…