I not really have a strong opinion on age verification and probably will only verify should I encounter a parcel I cannot enter (and hope it’s working then). But I still have some questions about the whole mechanism (also note that Robin answered some questions here already):
- What is the main intent for doing age verification? Is it to save Linden Lab from legal battles or is it for shop owners to be saved from that? (e.g. if they sell adult content to minors without knowing and then get sued by their parents).
- If a minor uses the drivers license etc. of their parent, what does that mean to the whole situation? Who is sued then? Are you protected from being sued then (either LL or shops owner, see question #1) because apparently the parents did not secure their documents enough?
- If the system works unreliable (like getting verified with false information) what does that mean? The same question as #2 basically.
- If you are on the parcel next to a flagged one and you move your camera inside and can still (and maybe purchase?) adult content on this parcel, what does this mean?
- What’s in that contract between Linden Lab and Integrity regarding private information? What happens if they store data nevertheless? They might say it’s not saved but it seems some people have doubts about it because of Aristotle formerly selling private information. Is there a fine in that contract? Is it reasonably high?
So all in all for me the goal is not quite clear. Sometimes it says it’s about complying to international law (and thus it’s about Linden Lab) and sometimes it says about building trust within the community (which sounds like shop owners are more secure from being sued if they flag their parcels). The latter is expressed in the knowledge base where it says:
While not foolproof, age verification can provide an additional layer of trust for inworld businesses and Residents. It also helps ensure that minors can’t gain access to inappropriate adult, mature content in Second Life.
Further on it seems to be more residents to have more confidence that minors cannot access parcels with adult oriented content. No international laws are mentioned here which is why I am somewhat confused about the goal.
Anyway, I hope someone can answer these questions and I might point Robin to them as she seems to be the lead in that project.
(and I am not seeing Second Life going down because of that, btw. ;-) )
Tags: secondlife, lindenlab, ageverification, integrity, aristotle