Frankly, this is how that works. You manage "all realistic steps to prevent minors access adult content". Every wise judge sees that you can't do more within bounds of the current Internet infrastructure (or would you like to have a "better Internet" where would be any your activity linked to your RL name?)

Well except of total removal of the adult content. I don't think that it is the right way. Sexuality is not illegal and is natural part of adult lives.

Cheers, Bo

PS: the Internet is not really made to instantly identify every it's user. That would be the only way how to prevent 100% minors from accessing adult content. The content providers can't prevent kids from stealing parent's ID and credit cards or simply googling for adult content.

The providers can only do all realistic steps on their side and the rest is matter of the parents who should watch the traffic in kid's computers.

Well that is being proposed in the USA right now as some sort of way to "Prevent Piracy" - in fact there are already several hundred ways to get around that proposal even before it is even enacted! Take a look at Internet access in places like Libya and N. Korea to see a better known illustration of this.

Every judge that I have ever spoken to is smart enough to realise this just like you and me.

Second Life has "verified" several hundred "Elvises" and about every other famous name that I can think of. At one time I "ran" 2000 camping bots in SL, and every one of them was "age verified" most with the same ID documents (genuine but not mine)!

Trouble is when I was a child what you call "postident" was the only way to get at all kinds of thing - like explosives and dangerous chemicals - I really was not interested in "adult content" at 8 years old, but all my friends LOVED the "big bangs". 500g of explosive in a milk bottle produces a very spectacular effect. Somehow we all survived.

Naively I thought that when MY kids were growing up that I knew all the tricks - I didn't - as my 40YO kids will now admit. THEY now spend hours on the phone with me trying to figure out how keep my grandchildren from killing themselves with that stuff! The fact that we all survived is little consolation when you recall all of the close calls you had.

"Security theatre" only inconveniences the honest person. The crooks know exactly what works and what doesn't, if only by watching what catches their friends.

<insert classic anti gun control rants here>

It is always the same either with kid protection or piracy. You need just do realistic steps for it. The level how far you have to go with these steps relies on local laws.

For example i like the DCMA process. It is easy to cope and it has clear rules. Only you need is implement it and you are safe in the US (or on com and net domains, see http://www.geek.com/articles/news/us-de ... -20110617/). it is really pity that there is no similar process for EU so one needs to adopt the US one.

You need be also aware that each such process is expensive. it costs server and human resources to handle all the requests effectively. So it is not just about wish but also about costs of such process....

With kids is the matter even more sensitive. You can't just so tell "voila we are kid safe" you need also take responsibility for that to prevent being sued by parents. Lets imagine that we would run a kid safe grid. Here is a list of expected demands:
1) all adult members verified in RL and compared with lists of deviants
2) all kid members verified by school or parents
well above points may wary depends on local law but the bellow points are a need (i think):
3) have updated copy of the whole database on another machine and regularly scan for:
- adult animations (compare md5 of on asset type animation against dictionary)
- adult keywords in asset names and descriptions
- adult keywords on folder names
- adult keywords in profiles, picks and classifieds
- adult keywords in region names
- adult keywords in groups and group descriptions
- adult related scripts (search for keywords within script)
- adult related notecards (search for keywords within notecards)
- UUIDs for those banned in the past
as you see the extra server would be pretty busy all day and expensive too. Of course you can have a list of "approved" assets and speed up scans on assets blobs thanks to it. But you still have to scan the inventory items....
4) have staff which would resolve issues found by 3)
5) have staff monitoring new sims for for masked adult content
6) DISABLE HG to protect kids
7) enable OPENSIM_PG_ONLY on search query
etc..

As you see it is pretty expensive thing. And in fact it just replaces natural responsibility of parents for their kids!

Bo

Well you can confirm age verification using your SL avatar so you don't need to provide RL credentials to them but rather to LL.

In this area is valid that you can never really protect kids unless your grid is managed by school and all persons and content closely watched. But you can do more for it and protect your self if you have adult content on the sim.

Bo

Hi there

Are you still in business? It is no longer possible to register on your website, due to the following error:

Thx Sparx, issue should be resolved now

Michelle,

I'm in the US, and could be willing to be a local facilitator of RL verification.

You mentioned the costs associated with mailing from Germany versus local mailings from here in US. Is it possible to tack a small fee, say $10-$20, to help cover the costs of facilitating such a process? I can see the use of such service becoming more a necessity as the 3D web grows. I understand the desire to keep this as free as possible, but in some circumstances, this could become a burden on the facilitator.

Shad MOrdre

Thank you, just to verify it for you, I was able to register just fine today!