Is individual voice verification allowed

[Eric Balder]

I wonder. If a person refuses to voice because of personal reason, are other people allowed to force him/her to voice verify? Like when him/her isn't voice verified she is restricted to become a full member of a group. I believe it is against any privacy policy but I want to be sure.

[Freya Mokusei]

You would have to define what you mean by 'force'.

In SL, no-one can force anyone to do anything.

If it constitutes Harassment by LL's definition, then it may be against either the Community Standards: http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php

Or the Terms of Service: part 6: http://lindenlab.com/tos#tos6

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Eric,

You can be banned from connecting to SL by Linden Lab for violation of the Terms of Service. You can be banned from privately "owned" properties in-world by owners, for any reason they choose. You can be prevented from communicating with individuals if they block or derender you, and they may do so for any reason they choose.

So, those are the things that can be done to you, either by LL or individuals. LL will never require voice verification and, for all practical purposes, doesn't require any verification at all, beyond submission of valid credit card information if you wish to bring money in-world, or some other proof of account ownership should you forget your username/password, or have your account hacked.

Now, this leaves individuals with the power to ban you from their properties and prevent you from communicating with them, for any reason. Should they decide to do so because you refuse to voice verify, that is within their rights. If the threat of banning/muting is sufficient to coerce you voice verify, I suppose you could call this "force". But it's a weak force at best, as you've always got the right to refuse and find friends elsewhere. And should such a situation arise, the friendship at stake should be questioned anyway.

Good luck!

[Syo Emerald]

There is no explicit part in the ToS about this. BUT there are parts about harasement and the atempt to "force" somebody into things they don't want to do pretty much sounds like that. On a side note: I don't even know how you think you/anybody could force someone into that.

Secondly, my personal thoughts about this whole voice verification bull**bleep**: Its homophobic nonesense. It shouldn't matter what gender, race or age a person has. Afraid you could get a hard one from a male or transgender? Do RL dating if so. Voicechat can also be faked in many ways. (Many don't know that).

Pushing and bullying someone into voicechat will only make them mutethe offender. Many people are also not able to go on voice. Not everyone owns the suited equipment to do so, others have an environment that doesn't suit voice, others have difficulties to talk...and some are just shy.

What ever it is: Everybody has the right to deciede if they want to do voicechat or not.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi Eric.

It's not against any rules for someone to say, "If you won't voice, you can't join my group."  But no one can "force" your friend to use voice if she doesn't want to.  If they harrass her, she can Mute them, or Abuse Report them.

[steph Arnott]

I do not do voice becouse i do not want to. If others do not like it then tough. If  some want to bully you, either tell them to get lost or mute them. This is SL and SL is what it means.