Since everyone is weighing in on this matter, I thought it best to put in my own 2L. First, let me just say up front that it's obvious that SL needs some sort of age verification system. While some people are linking this to the recent child pornography case, this is obviously a separate issue -- LL's response here isn't based on what adults do with each other, illegal and immoral or not. No one is saying that a real child was involved at all.The problem here is manifold. First, LL says that it won't keep resident info, which is a good thing, considering its history with such things. However, since they're using a third party anyway, it seems a little disingenuous for them to maintain that stance. Of course LL won't keep the info; this third party will. But how trustworthy is this third party? All online servers are in the same type of situation that motorcycle drivers are: there are two types, those who have been in accidents, and those who will. Similarly, no webserver is immune from being hacked, if the hackers want in badly enough.
Second, the nature of the proof of age. If credit cards don't do it, and obviously they don't, then what will? Driver's licenses can be faked easily, as can passport information. The only true method would seem to be one's Social Security information, and that's a scary road to travel. It's one thing to have your identity stolen via theft of your credit card, quite another for a thief to have your SSN. Frankly, that's a lot more open than I want to be.
Third, what's this fee for verification going to be? My current understanding, faulty as it may be, is that residents with paid accounts will only have to pay a small amount for verification. Non-paying members, however, might face a substantial fee. But what about accounts with their credit card information already noted by LL? This has previously been okay for LL in the past; is that trust suddenly revoked?
If LL is rolling this out so quickly because they're under pressure from the government (as some have suggested), will there be any penalties for residents who choose to remain unverified? It's easy to imagine, in this time of heightened terror, a List of Unverified Accounts being put together. Statistically speaking, some of those unverifieds will already have their information available. How could this be used?
Fourth, what about the definition of mature? It's a simple thing to change the status of one's sim from Mature to otherwise, but I've been on land that was marked Mature without having seen a single example of what I'd consider adult content or behavior. Regrettably, the reverse also applies, which is one of the reasons I can agree on the necessity for verification in the first place. Many times, maturity is evident in speech and behavior. So even with age verification measures in place, there is no guarantee of mature behavior. This is an ongoing debate, hearkening back to the opening of SL to non-paying accounts. Is this current issue a direct result?
Fifth, what about all those RL businesses, like IBM, or Toyota, with their tons of employees? Will they have to pay for all those people too? Does LL run the risk of annoying these businesses to the extent that they begin to find other alternatives? IBM already has their own Intraverse, and there are tools out there that help develop such platforms. Could this be a tidal change?
I hope that we'll get answers to these questions, and answers that are palatable to all of us. In my worst fantasies, I see this being the straw that breaks residents backs, leading to a grid-wide exodus. If this happens, would the businesses be far behind? Would SL have a future?
1. SL just is'nt fun anymore....
Posted at 5:12AM on May 10th 2007 by Loki Eliot