Linden Lab is circulating a notecard to selected residents - presumably ones that have been complained about before. It points out that "The depiction of sexual activity involving minors" is considered "broadly offensive" and that "Advertisements, promotions, or descriptions of such activities must be removed to avoid account sanctions. "Personally, I can't say this displeases me in the slightest. Despite one or two hysterical opinions to the contrary (take a course in reading comprehension, guys), I view this sort of activity with the greatest of distaste (to put it mildly). With a little luck, this is the first and only time I'm going to write about it.
You see, most of the people who have been close to me over the course of my life have been sexually abused as children. I find the whole notion of the depiction of any sexual activity with minors to be personally upsetting. Anyone who asked me (and in the last 48 hours or so, quite some number of people did) what my personal opinion was heard it. Most of you already know that (and a couple people who know do still claim that I hold the opposite opinion - you know who you are). That's why I didn't discuss the matter at all in my earlier post.
There are a couple things I'd really like to know, though. Is this the start of Linden Lab taking a solid stand on matters that are considered 'broadly offensive', or is this a one-off? Why not sooner? Was there some issue with internal policy or resourcing? Or was it just not important enough to tackle until the Dutch government started to make serious noise about it.
Also there's an ambiguous sentence at the end:
"Any account asserting an age that does not meet Second Life's minimum age of eligibility will be closed."
That could mean any one of several things. Or more than one, or all of them. We've contacted Linden Lab for clarification and will post an update when we know exactly what they mean. So far we only have confirmation from Linden Lab staffers that the notice is real, and not a forgery.
[Update: 8 March 2007, 16:20 SLT - Catherine Linden at Linden lab confirms the meaning of this sentence. She says, "If you say you're under 18, you're not eligible to participate in Second Life's Main Grid. In the end, our responsibility to safely separate minors from the adult content found within Second Life is more pressing than the needs of an individual Resident to roleplay."]
The text of that notecard in full:
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
1. Which was the Linden that was giving that out?
Posted at 2:45AM on Mar 8th 2007 by Catherine Omega