The World Is Run By Lawyers

…and lawyers are, by nature, a bunch of pussies. I’m sure they would rather call themselves ‘careful’, but then they’re lawyers. They like to play with words, it’s their thing.

Just now I heard of the first victim of age verification - a woman who cannot access her own store because the landowner has flagged the parcel as mature, or adult, or whatever the extra-mature terminology is they dreamed up for our virtual world. Now hear this, all you Lindens out there:

THIS IS INSANE.

Open Google. Click Preferences. Check ‘Do not filter my search results’. Save preferences.

On the main page, click Images. Fill in a girl’s name - any girl’s name - or the name of a young, attractive female celebrity. And I guarantee you that you will see real life full nudity and possibly hardcore pornographic material, on the first page of the image search results.

Here’s one example I found with Google after a search using the first name of my mother (sorry, mom). I cleaned it up for this blog - actually it is one of the most modest pictures from that page. And it took under five seconds to find it.

And that’s exactly how hard it is for kids. And that’s why as a parent you need to monitor your kid’s internet behaviour. Yes, it takes time away from your precious career but hey, it’s a kid, not the damn DVD player. It needs looking after. And I am not going to do that for you.

Google does not demand age verification. The sites with these pictures do not demand age verification. My ISP never asked me for age verification. The government of this or any other democratic country hasn’t set a minimum age to web access. And therefore the good people that run our virtual world have no obligation whatsoever to introduce age verification.

I don’t know what is wrong with the lawyer folk in San Francisco. Maybe they are hardcore Christian fundamentalists with an agenda to clean the Internet of all the ‘filth’ that’s to be seen. Maybe they are just not ready for the 21st century yet, and still think you can somehow shield people off from mature content. But most likely they are just a bunch of pussies.

While you’re at it, go and see what Google turns up when you search for ‘pussies’ as described above… and don’t for a minute fool yourself into believing that your kids wouldn’t ever try.

Disclaimer: if you think you own the rights to the picture above, shame on you. It’s not even a good photoshop.

Responsibility

Let me step out of my Nyte n Day skin for a second, and shed the Gurl 6 hairdo and the Enkythings shoes. Here’s a subject which is larger than Second Life - much larger.

Last night Second Voices creator Crasuss Petronius, Second Life Pride organizer Kamael Xervious, Robin Linden and myself discussed, among other issues, measures to protect kids in Second Life. And it struck me that there is something fundamentally wrong in our way of thinking about that issue.

An example from real life - in fact, life more real and twisted than anyone can handle: Columbine High School. The infamous Trench Coat Mafia had an arsenal of weapons stashed under their beds. Sure enough, after the first shock was over, the finger pointing began. It was violence on TV that was responsible for this, said one. It was Marilyn Manson who was responsible for this, said another. And of course the NRA - the National Rifle Association, the loudest voice in the US pro-weapons lobby - was blamed as well.

Noone blamed the parents. Let me run that by you again. These kids had heavy weaponry hidden under their beds and noone blamed the parents. But why didn’t they know what these boys had under their beds? Is it fear of ‘invading their privacy’? Is it lack of time, is it a false sense of security and trust in the boys’ behaviour? And wouldn’t the kids have known that noone really cared what the devil they were doing - I mean, would you have stashed automatic guns under your bed if you thought someone might look?

There you have it - double responsibility for the parents. For not keeping tabs on what their kids were doing, and in lacking to do so giving the kids the feeling that noone really cared, which may well have contributed to their behaviour in the first place.
Now back to the Internet and Second Life. If a kid enters Second Life and walks into a strip club or a private sex room, who is responsible? Linden Lab? The other Residents present? If a kid surfs the web and hits any of the gazillion unprotected, easy to find porn sites, who is responsible? Nekkid Chixxx dot com? AOL? Bill Gates? What about the parents?

Of course you cannot keep tabs on your kids 24/7. But do you take the time to talk about what’s on their minds? Do you check your browser history? Do you check under their beds, literally or as a figure of speech? Or are you one of those people who expect everyone else to protect your kids for you?

We can’t do that. As consenting adults we cannot be expected to live a Puritan Second Life just because an avatar or two is looking at us with eyes that are too young. Sex shops in real life do not have boarded-up windows either and yes, kids do look in.

You will have to take responsibility. Spend time with them, talk to them, and ’spy’ on them. Not to punish them later, but to know them. Kids are not supposed to be in Second Life. Make sure your kid isn’t - that’s your responsibility and not ours or Linden Lab’s.