Nude child avatars

[Female Winslet]

So I am looking for the wisdom of the group here. I got invited to join a community on an M rated sim and eagerly did so because it seemed like a fun group. But after having been there a couple of times I noticed that the sim very commonly has child avatars, including some extremely young ones, wandering about and dancing completely nude. I left the area, left the group for that community, and have warned some others that this fun group has a dark side.

To me this seems uncomfortably close to kiddie porn which is, of course, a crime to view or possess. 

So the question for the group is this . . . am I overreacting? Should I just dismiss it as something that makes me uncomfortable? Or do I need to do something serious about this?

[LittleMe Jewell]

31 minutes ago, Female Winslet said:

So I am looking for the wisdom of the group here. I got invited to join a community on an M rated sim and eagerly did so because it seemed like a fun group. But after having been there a couple of times I noticed that the sim very commonly has child avatars, including some extremely young ones, wandering about and dancing completely nude. I left the area, left the group for that community, and have warned some others that this fun group has a dark side.

To me this seems uncomfortably close to kiddie porn which is, of course, a crime to view or possess. 

So the question for the group is this . . . am I overreacting? Should I just dismiss it as something that makes me uncomfortable? Or do I need to do something serious about this?

If there is no sexual activity going on and no sexual objects around, then it is not against the TOS.  Just being naked is not considered an offense as nudity in and of itself is not sexual.

If it makes you uncomfortable, then simply stay away.

[Fionalein]

I visited RL lectures on criminal deviant behaviour. Some hours were related to the topic... what I took back is: It is all complicated, you will need an expert to judge the situation. There is also borderline material that was deemed inoffensive if alone but illegal if part of a collection. IMHO this would translate to SL as : It might be OK for the owner of a child avatar to dance nude in pagan non adult festivals (of the moderate kind of course) and visit nude beaches. If the same avatar owner however spends their whole online time only among nude virtual kids we might have a problem here. .... As said earlier it is difficult, especially as German law considers nude pictures of kids as illegal if they draw attention to or highlight the sexual organs (that is one of the definitions of "suggestive", there are some more but I don't remember all, and highlighting can be damn subtle) - I would not want to be the one in position to judge those cases.

Disclaimer: Mind you I am no lawyer, and these are just my interpretations. The lectures I visited were based on German law. German authorities however use a scale that was AFAIK develloped for the use by the FBI, so it might be comparable.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Fionalein

[LittleMe Jewell]

8 hours ago, Female Winslet said:

   Notably, the legal definition of sexually explicit conduct does not require that an image depict a child engaging in sexual activity.  A picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive.

I can pretty much guarantee you that years ago, when there was a large scandal about sex and children in SL, LL vetted everything very carefully with the US legal system.  Their lawyers would not intentionally let LL be on the wrong side of the law.  Notice the part that I bolded above.  A naked child that is dancing is not a problem unless it is doing sexually suggestive dances (i.e. the sort of dances you'd see a stripper or escort doing).

 

8 hours ago, Female Winslet said:

Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor, and images created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict an identifiable, actual minor.  Undeveloped film, undeveloped videotape, and electronically stored data that can be converted into a visual image of child pornography are also deemed illegal visual depictions under federal law.

Again, notice the parts that I bolded.  The images in SL are most definitely "distinguishable from an actual minor" and most definitely do NOT "appear to depict an identifiable actual minor".

 

I'm sorry if naked children bother you, but a naked child is not against the TOS and they are even allowed on Adult land as long as they are not near any sexual objects or activity.

 

Edited September 25, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Female Winslet]

The LL TOS does recognize that nudity is not in and of itself sexual. But it is not clear about that where child avatars are concerned. There is also a little matter of federal law. You can find the Citizen's Guide to U.S. Federal Law on Child Pornography here:

https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-child-pornography

Among other things, it addresses the very question you raised about whether nudity is sexual:

   Notably, the legal definition of sexually explicit conduct does not require that an image depict a child engaging in sexual activity.  A picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive.

So yes, just depicting naked children can be illegal if it's suggestive enough and I'm not sure what is suggestive enough. Are you?

There's also no exception for digital depictions of simulated children, particularly high quality ones.

Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor, and images created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict an identifiable, actual minor.  Undeveloped film, undeveloped videotape, and electronically stored data that can be converted into a visual image of child pornography are also deemed illegal visual depictions under federal law.

High resolution images of quality mesh avatars anyone?

See why I'm concerned?

 

Edited September 25, 2018 by Female Winslet
Fixing typo