Hearing some tall tales about age play over enforcement?

[GoblinCampFollower]

One of my friends has told me that they know a bunch of people who were just banned for AP and they are all in a panic that Linden Labs is casting a very broad net... ANYBODY IS IN DANGER!!!

I was wondering if anyone here could back me up when I say the people getting banned are probably lying... I doubt LL can afford to ban anyone and everyone who does anything naughty with an avatar that doesn't look like a geezer or isn't a giant... the people getting banned were probably way past the point of ambiguity then lied about what they did to their friends...

I tried and failed to google their actual criteria used, but I'd bet heavily that LL let's it go if it isn't CLEAR that it's age play.

 

[Free]

ANYBODY IS IN DANGER!!!

*If* they age play.

*taps lip*

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

*If* they age play.

*taps lip*

right... as I was saying, people who get banned act like LL just bans anyone if there is even a whisper that they might do it. I'm sure this is crap.

 

[Sid]

I'm not really what you would call a LL fan boy.
But the times I had to deal with them (I think 2-3 times the last 14 years) they were friendly and correct in their actions.
I don't believe that they will act as a bull in a china stop.

 

[Romana]

Age play is not just defined as having a child avatar, right?
I mean, I don't, but I have (or did, it's been a while) friends inworld so do.
Just curious.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Age play is not just defined as having a child avatar, right?
I mean, I don't, but I have (or did, it's been a while) friends inworld so do.
Just curious.

LL specifically says child avatars are allowed, but you can't have sex in them or a few other things. My thought is that people who got accounts nuked were caught having sex in avies that CLEARLY were under age and/or directly said so in RP.

 

[Plurabelle Laszlo]

I know of two cases where LL unbanned people who were accused of AP - if they didn't do anything wrong, they can at least try to write an appeal. Apparently false reports happen, and apparently LL sometimes bans first and factchecks later. And no, having a child avatar is not against the TOS or the community standards.
Official policy

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

*Vietnam style flashbacks*

 

[Free]

*Vietnam style flashbacks*

When were you last in Vietnam style?

 

[Monica Dream]

right... as I was saying, people who get banned act like LL just bans anyone if there is even a whisper that they might do it. I'm sure this is crap.

Age play is not just defined as having a child avatar, right?
I mean, I don't, but I have (or did, it's been a while) friends inworld so do.
Just curious.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with the "this is crap" take, myself. No, it's not just having a child avatar.

I mean, I've talked to people I trust who told me they were banned unfairly, and even believing them I still don't buy into the "ban panic" that tends to go around.

 

[Val]

I doubt they ban anyone unless the person has an obvious child avatar that acts like a child and posts / writes stuff that break ToS. Seen same panic on various Discords about people complaining that others reported them for 'age play' while they had adult avatars (note: some had anime ones but still adult ones). It is possible in some cases they press the ban hammer too early like ones mentioned above but it could be due to law; not sure if it matches EU one but when I had been an admin of an LGBT charity chat, we were legally obligated to report anything or we would be liable. In a period of few years, I only ever did that once with someone trolling but still had to in case they were not.

The current wave of panic seems to have started when Tumblr banned adult content (er ... or rather everything else but not those porn bots they were after) which triggerred everyone else to revise policies. SL bloggers did use Tumblr as well so presumably that could be connected.

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

I'm definitely not as social as I used to be, so, grain of salt. The Lab has been pretty consistent for a few years. Once in a while I'll hear about a pick on an EGL doll. False bans can still be resolved by raising a ticket. The Lab pays as much attention to tickets as they do ARs. If they're taking picks willy-nilly, they'll restore someone with just as little thought. (^_^)

 

[Mechanical]

There are two types of age play in SL. What the general public considers ageplay and what LL considers ageplay. Ask 10 different users and you'll get 10 different answers. LL's view on this is the only one that matters, the other view just gets somone banned from parcels and sims and is quickly forgotten about.

 

[Free]

There are two types of age play in SL. What the general public considers ageplay and what LL considers ageplay. Ask 10 different users and you'll get 10 different answers.

Wait, what? If there are 2 types of age play, but one of the types is based on what the general public "considers" it to be, then aren't there 11 types of age play after we've asked 10 different users?

But you are right: All that really matters is what LL decides on.

 

[bubblesort]

I can picture the appeal now: "It's just not fair! If you don't unban me, I'm gonna go tell your mommy!" LOL

 

[Caete]

I can picture the appeal now: "It's just not fair! If you don't unban me, I'm gonna go tell your mommy!" LOL

"My dad owns Linden Labs, I'll have him fire you when he gets home unless you unban me right now!"

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Official policy

That seems unusually specific for LL. I spent quite some time trying to get them to nail down their explicit content policy during the Zindra thing, and they were never so straightforward.

Though I am a little concerned about the "proximity to sex beds" bit, since there's nothing obvious that will tell you what a lot of furniture is scripted to do without trying it, and you'd be amazed what furniture has sexual scripts in it.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Though I am a little concerned about the "proximity to sex beds" bit, since there's nothing obvious that will tell you what a lot of furniture is scripted to do without trying it, and you'd be amazed what furniture has sexual scripts in it.

This is the only part that makes me a little anxious. I would say easily half of my friends in SL are adult avs, and I when I'm visiting or hanging out with them at their homes I have to skate on a little bit of blind faith that a Linden isn't going to suddenly appear and zap me because I'm sitting in my friend's living room chatting and there's a "naughty" kitchen ten meters away, or who-knows-what in their bedroom 5m above my head. I'd like to think that someone who saw me in such a situation could easily tell that I'm not up to anything, or even RP'ing at all; but the way the rule is written leaves room for bad-faith actors to ruin things for me AND my friends.

Also....guys. In the kitchen? Seriously? Gaaaaah

 

[Free]

When I was partnered in SL, she and I had gone window shopping among the adult wares and sex dungeons and pretend prophylactics and ended up at a store that was this large space with all the items along the wall, and nothing in the middle. Well, nothing but a child avatar, just standing there. From a distance it was hard to tell it was a child, but my partner is sensitive to these things (or just had a better computer at the time).

She mentioned the child avatar to me, probably knowing what I would do because I zoomed in to verify, then walked over to it and said "Hey, you're not supposed to be here."

Without a word, the avatar quickly vanished. I walked back to my partner and told her "I did my part."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

That seems unusually specific for LL. I spent quite some time trying to get them to nail down their explicit content policy during the Zindra thing, and they were never so straightforward.

Though I am a little concerned about the "proximity to sex beds" bit, since there's nothing obvious that will tell you what a lot of furniture is scripted to do without trying it, and you'd be amazed what furniture has sexual scripts in it.

LL's Terms of Service aren't statute law, though, and it's a mistake to approach them as such.

Context is everything, and a child av standing next to an apparently innocent piece of furniture in a store means something very different from the same av standing next to the same furniture in a sex dungeon.

In both cases the landowner would be wise to ask the child av to leave, and the Adult Content policy provides a reason from them to ask, but I doubt LL would ever take action against someone simply because of what they were standing next to, unless there was another part to the story.

Certainly when I've been involved in managing Adult regions, we've quoted Community Standards to child avs because we wanted to keep them out of particular areas where they'd make other visitors feel uncomfortable, not because we were particularly worried about LL's reaction.

However, people are much less likely to argue if they're told "the landowner doesn't want to get suspended because someone's complained to LL about your av being here" than if they're told "other visitors find your avatar's presence here rather creepy," so that's how we would put it.