German Authorities in the Central Office against Child Pornography have been alerted to a resident who has been trafficking in images of child pornography, and soliciting sex with residents in child avatars. While this isn't a crime in America, such activity is punishable in Germany by prison time up to five years. Currently, the identity of the pornographer is unknown.A couple of things about this story: First, although LL's servers reside on American soil, clearly LL will defer to German law in this case, as it probably should. However, in cases of less clear jurisdiction, it will be interesting to see how LL adjudicates these decisions.
Second, the article states that "Bestiality, or sex with animals, is becoming increasingly popular on the site ... " I suspect that they're speaking of Furries in this case, in which case the concept of Bestiality only vaguely applies. It's not difficult to imagine any sort of activity taking place in SL, limited only to the imagination and skill of its residents, but we need to clamp down on such bold statements if we want the reputation of SL to remain above-board. There are already enough examples of sensational press out there; let's not add to it.
(Via buzzle.com)
1. The BBC article I read said that (allegedly) real child pornography had been displayed in-world and that offers were made to put someone in touch with real world child pornographers. Those things are definitely illegal in the United States. I suspect that some pedophiles made themselves conspicuous in SL through "age play", and that it wasn't the "age play" that the authorities were focused on.
Still, societies will have to decide where to draw the line. Should children be sexualized in any format? How is this handled legally when it comes to painting or drawing, and is VR different than those things?
Posted at 7:54AM on May 9th 2007 by Cadroe Murphy