News Papers Around the world are Reporting

Maybe in response to several blogs reporting yesterday about the Fédération Nationale des Familles de France planning on putting legal cross hairs on Linden Lab and many ISP in France over Second Life allowing minors to access a world of virtual casinos, tobacco, alcohol, drugs and “unbound sites” where scenes of rape, bondage, zoophilie, and scat; Linden Lab said Monday that its popular virtual world Second Life is STRICTLY adults-only.

The spokesman (Daniel Linden) for Linden Labs said they had not been contacted by the association, therefore, were unable to comment specifically about the complaint.

“However, Second Life is a platform strictly for adults [ages 18 and older], and Linden Lab enforces strict measures to prevent access by minors,” stated Linden.

As we all know the Lindens are in the process of an one time age verification system for members who wish to access adult material in Second Life.

Owners of adult-themed virtual properties, which include kinky sex clubs for bondage or bestiality aficionados, will be asked to “flag” their locales so Linden can deny access to avatars of minors.

Landowners are morally and legally responsible for the content displayed and the behavior taking place on their land, Good ole Daniel Linden wrote.

Verifying ages also gives added trust to business transactions in a world where the local currency, the Linden, can be exchanged for US dollars, according to the company.

Age verification will be voluntary but only “age-verified” residents will get access to “flagged” parts of Second Life, Daniel Linden wrote. Flagging adult locales will also be voluntary, according to Daniel.

If residents and businesses attempt to violate this rule, we expect that such behavior will be reported by the community,” Daniel wrote.

In the event we encounter abuses of self-regulation, Second Life may have to require age-verification throughout the world. We hope that does not happen.

Documents accepted for verification will vary depending on country.
Daniel Linden vowed that the personal information of members would be deleted immediately after identities and ages are verified.

Now I wonder if this will have Linden Lab scrambling at a pace which will cause implementation of an age verification plan with less thought and privacy measures to insure better protection of the “of age” individuals participating in Second Life?