Lada Charlton

This entire thread is awful and is making me want to fund my women-only-sim investment sooner rather than later... 😇

No, absolutely not.

Also, I'd like to add that my most recent interest in these topics came about from reporting more than two cases of age-play related sex crimes that I accidentally stumbled upon from flying around in the last 30 days alone. Both experiences were truly awful, as they involved photos taken of in-world activities with a very, very clear minor avatar. It's rough out there!

Thank you for sharing. These stories are so important, whether in RL or SL. ***** abuse is just so unbearably terrible because of this confusion. And not one instance should fall through the cracks because we are more concerned about false reports than the actual crimes being committed. I am also a survivor of childhood sex abuse, which is why I take these topics extremely seriously in my business life (as a technology worker), and as an SL resident. Thank you to everyone who has contributed something meaningful, however difficult it may feel. Cultures are changing, but only if we care enough.

Thank you for correcting me on what my personal perception should be and the precise terms of the implicit arguments made in this thread. For a reply, see this comment .

Also: there is no perfect s.e.x crime victim. We cannot expect anyone to know for *certain* that what they experienced was a sex-crime, or to have an absolute answer to what they are reporting. This is why the report tool is built the way it has existed for many years, and is why in any society, including with LL, the reporting process is so far removed and formalized after the initial report is made (in theory). These discussions might have been made on this forum in the past, which has no influence on the fact that I find the response to scrutiny of renewed discussions to be downright disgusting.

I spoke about the subjectivity of reporting these crimes, or how rules can be interpreted, in multiple comments above. I'll repeat it again: U.S. prosecutors and judges are the ones who are trusted with interpreting U.S. laws around ***** abuse, so LL should mirror these existing legal systems to better protect people if they aren't already doing it (and I believe that they are!). The waters on these laws in RL are in fact *extremely* muddy which is why millions in civil litigation and 100s of thousands of criminal cases are seen around the world globally in the real world. Only a very small fraction see a positive outcome for the victim. There is absolutely no way every new player to SL should be expected to know or completely understand these guidelines or the TOS, beyond what laws are applicable and naturally carry over from the real world. That's the primary purpose of the reporting tool, and that's why the ultimate outcome of reports is decided by LL (and likely their in-house counsel). I think the "problem" of vigilantes reporting real sex crimes in virtual worlds utterly pales in comparison to the everyday damage done by these depictions. These activities have lasting health effects for the people who encounter them. We should never, ever expect an SL resident to shrug an experience like this off or ignore it and carry on without caring again after initially reporting. LL actually explains in their automated response to reports that they will follow up with you, and that they acknowledge the pain the experience may have caused, which I really appreciate from an ethical perspective. I also think if the last 6 months in U.S. popular culture in 2017 has taught us anything about this topic, it's that sex crimes must be aggressively and without a doubt pursued and stopped. IMO there has been a major lack of outward community participation and discussion on these topics to better protect people's health. Also, it is an extremely popular misconception that only impoverished nations deal with these issues at an RL level. This is absolutely not the case, as domestic violence and ***** abuse, which go hand-in-hand, *never* adhere to socioeconomic or other societal boundaries (ie, "Civilized.") If anything, the data shows cultures that are *more* Westernized (which is how I read this phrasing implicitly) actually have a bigger problem with ***** abuse and related crime rates. I also think that anecdotal evidence of abuse due to avatar height, is becoming less common in SL, and used to be a much bigger issue than it is today. I also still believe that this height abuse issue does not compare in stature to the problem of predators or crimes being under-reported on virtual networks. Again, we do not need to look far to see the same patterns in RL societies, subjectively civilized or not, and how solutions have been achieved to protect the greatest number of people possible. SL and Sansar are still extremely young networks in the span of all technology innovation. We need to define these cultures early, so we can agree our presence here is ethical and healthy. If this discussion makes a few people uncomfortable or brings up other issues of abuse, then those cultures of abuse need to be addressed individually and not conflated with real possible crimes around age-play. SL's history of false-reporting due to height should have absolutely no impact on a culture of reporting sex crimes, or this discussion, as they contain no real crime and are merely an annoyance LL can do better to correct whereas the latter is a crime.

I do believe that, and I've been here observing this problem and building businesses on this network since 2004, including on the Teen Grid. I also know safety is paramount to any virtual network's long-term's success, and that arguments over the semantics of defining virtual representations of age-play sexual activity is less important than reporting as many *real* cases of this crime as possible. We need to do better. If you don't think anything will come of this thread, even in spite of the popular culture in the United States now paying closer attention to sex crimes, consider the major changes technology and internet companies have made in 2017 alone in order to be safer, and more transparent with regards to exploitation and criminal activity. Uber, Google, and Facebook just to name a few.

This is a specific topic U.S. courts have been debating, for... over 50 years. For example, portions of U.S. law are very vague to empower prosecutors and judges to have more subjective control of cases. I think we can learn and adapt a lot from RL societies in SL, as this network has already done since 2004. If we extrapolate from U.S. law, which makes sense in multiple contexts not the least of which is how the activity we're discussing can *be a violation of U.S. law while still going un-reported, and continuing*, I think LL should start better, or more apparent and clear campaigns to protect people. This would obviously have a secondary effect on businesses, as consumers would feel safer (see the comment above) buying products and services, and would, therefore, buy more of them. Put simply, spending a little money now on anti-age-play campaigns might net LL a significant ROI in the long-run. I would think any campaign would have to scrap the silly height requirements to actually be useful, as all types of fantasy avatars might fall outside or inside this limit, and it's just not realistic. I think after a smaller campaign is successful, that LL should bring on in-house attorneys if they don't have them already that are specifically assigned to this work, and help to quickly process and automate reports ethically. I think most adults over the age of 25 can reliably discern what is sexual, age-play, and what is not. That subjectivity is the nature of reporting these instances, so we need all the community support we can get. The examples you mention are clear edge-cases to me, but that would be something for attorney's to help standardize and decide if they haven't already for LL. I think using the phrase "witch hunt" is indicative of a perspective that falls far outside this discussion, but is similar, and reveals more about the commenter than this debate. Salem witches were murdered because they were marginalized women. What we're discussing here is a *virtual* world, that impacts real humans' health, and the sexual predators that make this a problem. Not marginalized women. If you want to discuss Salem, pick up a history book.

The federal republican nominee for U.S. Senate who is a confirmed pedophile, is competing in one of the most hotly-debated elections on the globe tomorrow?

You're grasping at straws, and making straw-man arguments, which are very confusing and wrong. I'm trying to address your claims directly while responding to what I feel are a severe lack of ethics in this discussion and your apparent interest in my opinion, which I've made clear since my original reply. You're not understanding how technology must always be developed to protect people, not exploit them. You are also saying the same words repeatedly, but somehow I don't think our interest in the health and safety of other human beings aren't what also make us similar. Are these the same opinions you share at your community board meetings to debate the efficacy of neighborhood watches and other self-governing in RL, too? Do you debate child avatar bans at Adult-themed parcels, as well? Why is this any different?

Not sure that really applies in this instance. As someone clarified, child avatars on Adult land are OK, unless they are engaging in sexual interactions. Then it is very clearly a violation of the TOS, and multiple laws.

Literally anyone can submit an abuse report if they find sexual content related to *****. This would mean anyone who has an SL avatar is quite literally, the police. I think the original poster made very clear that they are not interested in RP families, which is a huge part of SL, but very specifically people who are violating the TOS (and by extension, U.S. law) through sexual content related to *****. None of this relates to abuse of the report tool, which is unrelated to the original reason abuse reports were created in the first place, to report real abuse. I'm not sure why there is any debate, here.

Great to know, I think LL has done an excellent job of responding to reports, lately.

User-generated virtual worlds with self-policing communities are a necessity for their existence. What the OP is describing is little more than encouraging others to report violations, in addition to taking on as much of the work as this person appears to be able to handle. I would only applaud increased scrutiny and safety of children, and ***** that might impact them in SL. There is actually something like the OP's original idea. It was called NBC: Dateline, which is now ironic seeing that there are so many predators at NBC. However, this show setup what were essentially production-level bounty hunters with trained professionals to put real-life predators away. The work OP is describing doesn't even require training. The world is virtual, so the variables contributing to such predation should be much more opaque than in RL. Anyone is free to disagree with me, or the OP on their original opinion, but even remotely suggesting you're defending age-play by dissuading something like a virtual "neighborhood watch" inclines me to make my opinion very clear.