Second Life gets sanitised
♥ Greetings, seekers of romance ♥
today we read about another U-turn at the Second Life Blog. Another restriction in a world once known for it’s freedom is imposed on the inhabitants. Did a puritan zealot seize power in SL? Adult content is to be banned from mainland to a separated continent (by some in the forums already called a “ghetto”) where only age-verified avatars will be able to teleport to.
Are you age-verified? I know a lot of people who aren’t, but are regular visitors of so called adult areas in Second Life. Why aren’t they age-verified then? I guess there are a lot of reasons, one not wanting to share this kind of information with the company comissioned by Linden Lab with that job. Furthermore age verification doesn’t work in a lot of countries since the necessary information is guarded by law and can’t be easily checked by a company.
Anyway, first gambling is forbidden, banking was the next step, now it’s so called adult content. I still remember the time of the gambling ban. Many comments predicted at that time that escorts and sex would be the next victims of the “moral majority”. Is Second Life becoming a “Little America” with a puritan zealot as a mayor?
I am deeply worried about the increasing restrictions in Second Life. I am an aged-verified adult (yes, we really exist) and I came here to “play” an adult (18+) game. I didn’t expect to find Disneyland and I don’t want to be part of Second Disneyland. …I found gambling in SL boring and the ever present gambling ads even revolting. I never invested in banks or owned one myself. I don’t visit adult places very often, but I own a few adult animations and even a product from Xcite! But this is not about my preferences and what I find revolting or not. The question is, what is next on the agenda to be banned? Having a concealed weapon in one’s inventory and who doesn’t have a gun in some old freebie pack? Drinking? Are alcoholic beverages offered to american citizens under 21 in SL? Smoking? Are there still virtual cigarettes offered in SL? LOL! LOL? Bit by bit freedom and liberty die.
As far as I can see at the moment, “Love me tender” won’t be rated as as adult, but merely as mature. But will we pass the next purity test? We encourage the love between people, no matter what sex (Oops: should be gender probably) or which genderal (lol) preference they have. As far as I know, that gets you stoned (don’t get me wrong 
) in some not so virtual parts of this planet.
Linden Lab brings forward the argument that only very few of us are interested in adult rated content. That is probably true, but not gambling myself doesn’t mean that I want to be protected from gambling by a benevolent authority. Not wearing hairy ears and a tail myself doesn’t mean that I am affronted by someone who does and need to be protected from viewing this person.
To me it seems as if once again the forces of the uptight try to impose their narrow minded view on the majority and the majority keeps quiet to stop them from whining.
Just the rumbling of an old liberal? What is your opinion on that topic? Comments please.
As long as we are still allowed to do it
♥ Spread the Love ♥
Villain Baroque
It will be interesting to see what route Linden Labs takes on the subject.
On a lighter note, being from beta, I wonder what happened to the “black curtain” set up they use to use. This was essentially just that, black all the way around each “Mature” Sim (we only had 2-3 Mature sims back in beta).
This basically meant that any new people who just joined the game were unable to see into the Mature sims and unable to physically enter them (though they saw people coming and going from them).