Official Statement From Linden Lab On Accusations

[GoblinCampFollower]

This is not LL's first time at the ageplay panic rodeo. I remember when it first got attention because of a German tv expose on it, and they were caught pretty off guard on how to respond. Unfortunately. the people who have kid avis for their own reasons unrelated to anything sexual are painted with the same brush as those who partake in the disgusting sexual version. What we may end up with this time around is even more restrictions on any underage looking avis.

Recently, an RP community I am tangentially involved in had to deal with the issue of a resident who had an avatar that was supposedly a college student but looked all of 12 years old. They were removed when they refused to change their avi (it is an adult residential community with light rp elements), but not before raging against it being just like Nazi Germany. In turn, the admin of the community went a bit nuts making new guidelines of what constitutes an adult avatar down to illustrations and very specific rules. It was absurd. I am afraid we may see such a reaction on a larger scale now.

It impacts me not one iota, but it doesn't mean I want to see that happen. You don't have to throw out the baby with the dirty bathwater, so to speak.

I'm aware that current policies were because they were originally ignorant of the problem. But I think in recent years their policies have been reasonable. To your point, I'm worried they will instigate more draconian regulation such as requiring all men to be +6 feet tall or something stupid like that.

 

[Free]

I'm worried they will instigate more draconian regulation such as requiring all men to be +6 feet tall or something stupid like that.

It's not a fear that's all that absurd.

I've mentioned before that a previous SL partner of mine has been accused of age play because her avatar is very short. That's it: she's short, while everything else about her screams adult. I'm concerned for these people coming up to Peter Dinklage on the street in real life.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

It's not a fear that's all that absurd.

I've mentioned before that a previous SL partner of mine has been accused of age play because her avatar is very short. That's it: she's short, while everything else about her screams adult. I'm concerned for these people coming up to Peter Dinklage on the street in real life.

Yeah.... I'm often on fantasy sims that have things like goblins and kobolds who are obviously not kids, but are short... I don't want everyone to feel like they have to be a behemoth.

 

[Cristiano]

Is it possible to get a broad overview of which skeleton has fallen out of the closet? I haven't been paying huge attention and have just only seen the officialagainst seval post. Regrettably, it does not narrow down which closet door got left open to presumably public scrutiny.

A blog post appeared on Medium from an anonymous user hiding behind a pseudonym that made detailed allegations of sexual ageplay, pedophilia and other accusations involving an LL executive and others. It also implied that the issues were ignored by Linden Lab and that the author was acting as some sort of whistleblower to bring attention to the issues. It read like a hit piece at times and was a bit all over the place. The blog was widely disseminated quickly, and LL remained silent about it until their statement on Wednesday. The blog post itself was removed by Medium for ostensibly violating their tos, though it remained up for more than a week.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

To the best of my knowledge, most of us in SL are adults, many of us in our mid-forties and older. So, whatever sexual roleplay happens predominantly happens among adults. Also, there are several safeguards (technical, regulatory, etc.) in place that protect users from getting involved in non-consensual, coerced sexual activity. So, I suppose we can establish that the majority of participants in in-world sexual roleplay are consenting adults.

Personally, I usually roleplay in SL as a highly-sexualised, half-human, half-machine, latex-coated erotic appliance (for want of a better word). This was a conscious choice that I made, an informed decision I made myself, so I can express a part of my sexuality and indulge in some seriously kinky talk and play with Mistress. Both She and I are adults. My shape, either in my latex-encased form or in my more human form, is based on what I looked like when I was 35 years old (I'm 44 now). Mistress' shape is also that of a thirty-something woman - in Her case, though, Her avatar's apparent age is closer to Her RL age. So far, so good.

Now, if we define "ageplay" as "roleplaying as a character whose age is different than your real age", you could say I'm "ageplaying": I'm 44 in RL, and my avatar looks nine years younger. And much of my roleplay in SL is sexual. It's accepted as benign, though, as my avatar has adult proportions, is operated by an RL adult, and engages in sexual activities with adult-looking avatars operated by RL adults.

But is there a chance that a sexual playmate is operated by a minor? Yes, there is. Age verification in SL and elsewhere (online cigar and alcohol shops, for instance) relies on a simple declaration on behalf of the user; you claim to be an adult and the online service believes you. It has no other choice, actually, as it's extremely difficult to reconcile reliable age verification with privacy and data protection laws. So, if you're a minor and you, for whatever reason, lie to the owners of the online service, you violate their ToS and the legislation concerning false declaration.

I'd like to mention six deeply troubling use-case scenarios:

1. A person, who is a minor in RL, pretends willingly to be an adult in order to access adult SL content and engage in in-world sexual activities;
2. A person, who is a minor in RL, pretends under coercion or other pressure to be an adult in order to access adult SL content and engage in in-world sexual activities;
3. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays willingly as a child in SL and violates SL's ageplay policy;
4. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays under coercion or other pressure as a child in SL and violates SL's ageplay policy;
5. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays as an adult in SL and violates SL's ageplay policies willingly;
6. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays as an adult in SL and violates SL's ageplay policies under coercion or other pressure.

What do you do to avoid such things in SL? It's well-documented that age verification systems usually run afoul of even the most lenient privacy and data protection laws. So, LL has little choice but to take the user's word for it, like every online liquor or tobacco store does. Yes, there's very little that can be done on LL's end to prevent minors from accessing the whole gamut (G / M / A-rated) of SL content.

Personally, I hope we've put the "short avatar = sexual ageplayer" nonsense behind us, especially given a shift I've observed towards more proportionate avatars and builds closer to RL sizing. Personally, I'd rather see SL become open only to RL adults, with strongly-worded clauses for false declaration of the user's adulthood.

Remember, for reasons of respecting people's freedoms, most laws act after the unlawful act has been committed, not preemptively. So, LL can't prevent someone from doing something, but it can stop them while they're doing it and / or punish them for having done it or for doing it. This means we can't expect them to vet and filter everything that is uploaded onto SL. Forget the nonsense put forth by Axel Voss during negotiations for the EU Copyright Directive, upload filters simply are not the answer. Besides legitimate privacy and freedom of expression concerns, you increase LL's financial and administrative burden unjustifiably. The current situation, where content is uploaded first and, if a user reports it, it is examined and then removed (or not), is the one closest to how RL law works.

But if we insist on preventing questionable content made and sold specifically for child avatars from being sold in SL, I have a few ideas here. For starters, LL could require:

1. that all content creators intending to make content for child avatars register themselves with LL, through a procedure that respects their privacy - remember, SL is about privacy protection that allows us to be more free;
2. that all such content be sold both on the Marketplace and in-world, instead of only in-world;
3. that all such content be vetted manually, under very specific guidelines and procedures, by specially-trained LL staff before it goes on the Marketplace - of course, should the content be rejected, the vendor must have the option to request a review of the decision;
4. that all such content be first approved for sale on the Marketplace before it is sold in-world;
5. that in-world shops selling items for child avatars be placed exclusively on G-rated sims and featured exclusively on G-rated events;
6. that an in-world shop on the same sim as a shop for child avatars shall not sell adult-rated content;

Additionally, LL could tell content creators to not mix adult-rated content with child-appropriate content in their product ranges - if their product ranges are mixed, they should be encouraged to split into two separate stores, placed on separate sims. The reason why I chose manual vetting is the astoundingly high false-positive rate of automated filtering systems. Humans, being context-aware, are far better at making critical decisions.

 

[Monica Dream]

...some food for thought from the Reddit thread....

 

[Caliandris]

To the best of my knowledge, most of us in SL are adults, many of us in our mid-forties and older. So, whatever sexual roleplay happens predominantly happens among adults. Also, there are several safeguards (technical, regulatory, etc.) in place that protect users from getting involved in non-consensual, coerced sexual activity. So, I suppose we can establish that the majority of participants in in-world sexual roleplay are consenting adults.

Personally, I usually roleplay in SL as a highly-sexualised, half-human, half-machine, latex-coated erotic appliance (for want of a better word). This was a conscious choice that I made, an informed decision I made myself, so I can express a part of my sexuality and indulge in some seriously kinky talk and play with Mistress. Both She and I are adults. My shape, either in my latex-encased form or in my more human form, is based on what I looked like when I was 35 years old (I'm 44 now). Mistress' shape is also that of a thirty-something woman - in Her case, though, Her avatar's apparent age is closer to Her RL age. So far, so good.

Now, if we define "ageplay" as "roleplaying as a character whose age is different than your real age", you could say I'm "ageplaying": I'm 44 in RL, and my avatar looks nine years younger. And much of my roleplay in SL is sexual. It's accepted as benign, though, as my avatar has adult proportions, is operated by an RL adult, and engages in sexual activities with adult-looking avatars operated by RL adults.

But is there a chance that a sexual playmate is operated by a minor? Yes, there is. Age verification in SL and elsewhere (online cigar and alcohol shops, for instance) relies on a simple declaration on behalf of the user; you claim to be an adult and the online service believes you. It has no other choice, actually, as it's extremely difficult to reconcile reliable age verification with privacy and data protection laws. So, if you're a minor and you, for whatever reason, lie to the owners of the online service, you violate their ToS and the legislation concerning false declaration.

I'd like to mention six deeply troubling use-case scenarios:

1. A person, who is a minor in RL, pretends willingly to be an adult in order to access adult SL content and engage in in-world sexual activities;
2. A person, who is a minor in RL, pretends under coercion or other pressure to be an adult in order to access adult SL content and engage in in-world sexual activities;
3. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays willingly as a child in SL and violates SL's ageplay policy;
4. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays under coercion or other pressure as a child in SL and violates SL's ageplay policy;
5. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays as an adult in SL and violates SL's ageplay policies willingly;
6. A person, who is an adult in RL, roleplays as an adult in SL and violates SL's ageplay policies under coercion or other pressure.

What do you do to avoid such things in SL? It's well-documented that age verification systems usually run afoul of even the most lenient privacy and data protection laws. So, LL has little choice but to take the user's word for it, like every online liquor or tobacco store does. Yes, there's very little that can be done on LL's end to prevent minors from accessing the whole gamut (G / M / A-rated) of SL content.

Personally, I hope we've put the "short avatar = sexual ageplayer" nonsense behind us, especially given a shift I've observed towards more proportionate avatars and builds closer to RL sizing. Personally, I'd rather see SL become open only to RL adults, with strongly-worded clauses for false declaration of the user's adulthood.

Remember, for reasons of respecting people's freedoms, most laws act after the unlawful act has been committed, not preemptively. So, LL can't prevent someone from doing something, but it can stop them while they're doing it and / or punish them for having done it or for doing it. This means we can't expect them to vet and filter everything that is uploaded onto SL. Forget the nonsense put forth by Axel Voss during negotiations for the EU Copyright Directive, upload filters simply are not the answer. Besides legitimate privacy and freedom of expression concerns, you increase LL's financial and administrative burden unjustifiably. The current situation, where content is uploaded first and, if a user reports it, it is examined and then removed (or not), is the one closest to how RL law works.

But if we insist on preventing questionable content made and sold specifically for child avatars from being sold in SL, I have a few ideas here. For starters, LL could require:

1. that all content creators intending to make content for child avatars register themselves with LL, through a procedure that respects their privacy - remember, SL is about privacy protection that allows us to be more free;
2. that all such content be sold both on the Marketplace and in-world, instead of only in-world;
3. that all such content be vetted manually, under very specific guidelines and procedures, by specially-trained LL staff before it goes on the Marketplace - of course, should the content be rejected, the vendor must have the option to request a review of the decision;
4. that all such content be first approved for sale on the Marketplace before it is sold in-world;
5. that in-world shops selling items for child avatars be placed exclusively on G-rated sims and featured exclusively on G-rated events;
6. that an in-world shop on the same sim as a shop for child avatars shall not sell adult-rated content;

Additionally, LL could tell content creators to not mix adult-rated content with child-appropriate content in their product ranges - if their product ranges are mixed, they should be encouraged to split into two separate stores, placed on separate sims. The reason why I chose manual vetting is the astoundingly high false-positive rate of automated filtering systems. Humans, being context-aware, are far better at making critical decisions.

When you ageplay a 35 year old and are actually 44 you are not ageplaying in any sense that people understand the activity: that involves playing what appears to be a minor. Playing a minor in an inappropriate situation or in the presence of sexual activity or content is against the TOS. I am 65, my avatar is 25 and staying that age forever, btw.

In some countries cartoon sex between what appears to be a minor and an adult avatar is not a problem as long as it involves no actual minors. In the UK representing sex between minors and adults in any way - even collage involving pictures cut out of magazines - is illegal. Having any images of that sort will result in prosecution if discovered. The argument that it involves only adults behind the avatars is redundant, the images themselves are illegal. What appears on the screen would be illegal here.

The problem of verifying resident's ages is one which is very difficult to overcome, as any teen can use an adult credit card or passport to verify. The problem of child avatars visiting adult regions is similarly fraught with difficulty, given that Lindens in particular swap out avatars every five minutes and anyone can be adult one moment and a child the next. I'm not sure how that can be overcome unless very strong sanctions are enforced by LL.

The problem of enforcement is an enduring problem in all areas of Second Life. The events programme became a shitshow the moment they took off the oversight which Lindens announcing the events gave them. They say it became too big for them to vet every event, but I think one person could easily have done it, and as you say, the Marketplace ought to be one place where the vetting should be done, and strongly policed. It gives a very poor impression of Second Life if items which are anything but general appear on the front page of the Marketplace.

LL have always seemed to be allergic to any situation which requires them to manage residents or take any authority over creators, but Second Life would be a better place if there were some sort of trusted trader scheme. Of course Stroker sort of set one up and then did the least trusted trader thing possible and released other people's creations full perms into the wild. I doubt LL have the will to do anything but make more stringent rules. Whether those will be policed is open to question. Maybe they should get those people who play police in SL to get on it....

I still say they made a fatal error in trying to corral all the adult content in Zindra while allowing residents to retain their adult content in their private homes and islands outside Zindra. Had they instead made a continent for the "no sex please, were prudish" group then they would have grabbed the opportunity to get away from all adult content, would have policed the continent stringently themselves and would have been happy about it. It would mean that establishments who want nothing to do with the seedier aspects of SL could have avoided it, and the rest of SL could carry an adult content warning. It wouldn't have solved the ageplay problem, but there would definitely have been a clearer defined PG area for those looking for that. As it is, the rest of SL is a minefield for anyone wanting to avoid adult content.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Most av's are above average height compared to the real world. I hardly ever go into SL anymore but I have been given problems a couple of times because of
<-- this av who is only around 5 feet.

 

[Grey Mars]

A blog post appeared on Medium from an anonymous user hiding behind a pseudonym that made detailed allegations of sexual ageplay, pedophilia and other accusations involving an LL executive and others. It also implied that the issues were ignored by Linden Lab and that the author was acting as some sort of whistleblower to bring attention to the issues. It read like a hit piece at times and was a bit all over the place. The blog was widely disseminated quickly, and LL remained silent about it until their statement on Wednesday. The blog post itself was removed by Medium for ostensibly violating their tos, though it remained up for more than a week.

I did finally get ahold of the original. Regrettably, any meaningful discussion of this mess would require directly referencing items with specifics in place. Given the details, I feel VVO's stance in not doing so is the current proper course of action. This assumes that third party investigations done in good faith are going forwards as stated by LL themself in the original public announcement.

I am not myself Feted Inner Core material. I stay in my little hole in the ground, and generally only pay attention to current news when there's an explosion outside. However, I've been in SL for 20 years as of today, and I AM a very good listener when people need to talk. I've been good friends with quite a number of people who were movers and shakers. The primary allegations are outside my sphere. A large number of secondary points are however known, and the overall pattern is plausible based on what has happened over the years. Regardless of if the main points are valid, it's good to have the investigation based purely on how plausible it ends up seeming to Average Oldtimer.

I'm bowing out of the general conversation, baring new details that are publicly sharable.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I saw the original post the day it came out but only quickly read or scanned over it since it was so long. I probably should have saved it because - drama.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

[...] I'd like to mention six deeply troubling use-case scenarios: [...]

This seems to cloud the issue unnecessarily. Yes, LL is obligated to make a reasonable effort to keep 'Adult Content' and 'underage users' segregated. It's far from perfect, but not significantly worse than a lot of otherwise 'open' services on the internet.

SAP is not-so-much about the -actual- age and consent of the participants. It's more about the depictions created by their actions, which are illegal in various countries, like Germany. And for good reason.

SAP, simulated or not, is a magnet for pedophiles. It's one thing to have a few 'individuals' risking getting caught crossing the line, but when enough of them gather it turns into an underground 'community'. As that black market network of predators grows, it incentivizes and enriches those who create illegal content. Enough that it can cross over and contribute to real world sex trafficking, sexual child abuse, harm and worse.

This is why the Vatican has been in such hot water, it's not that they have a huge number of predatory priests, its that their community -enabled- child molestation by knowingly protecting those doing it from the civil authorities. Nazi's, organized crime... anytime you have a community based upon the damaging values of individuals, you end up with a large and growing problem and ever increasing harms to pretty much anyone and everyone else.

Part of stamping out those abuses is by giving them no safe harbor. There must be extra policies and consequences, both corporate and legal, against generating that kind of content (even if only ephemeral/performative instead of enduring).

I'm all for free expression but not to the degree that it lets the social cancer of pedophiles, white supremacists and organized crime flourish in the shadows and metastasize. There are times when the law can and should step in and say "This kind of free expression is not protected because it contributes to inevitable harm and increased risk of harm."

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

To the best of my knowledge, most of us in SL are adults, many of us in our mid-forties and older. So, whatever sexual roleplay happens predominantly happens among adults. Also, there are several safeguards (technical, regulatory, etc.) in place that protect users from getting involved in non-consensual, coerced sexual activity. So, I suppose we can establish that the majority of participants in in-world sexual roleplay are consenting adults.

What you don't seem to understand is that in many countries nowadays the visual depiction of sex with minors alone is already a criminal offense. It doesn't matter if the person behind the avatar is an adult or not, the look alone of the avatar matters.

This includes the USA, where under Federal Law this is forbidden as well and categorized as child pornography. Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor.

There is of course some room of tolerance by SC, but the law is there. More importantly aside the possible, legal headache bad press coverage of that type is always hurting business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_pornography_laws_in_the_United_States

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

What you don't seem to understand is that in many countries nowadays the visual depiction of sex with minors alone is already a criminal offense. It doesn't matter if the person behind the avatar is an adult or not, the look alone of the avatar matters.

This includes the USA, where under Federal Law this is forbidden as well and categorized as child pornography. Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor.

There is of course some room of tolerance by SC, but the law is there. More importantly aside the possible, legal headache bad press coverage of that type is always hurting business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_pornography_laws_in_the_United_States

Thank you for mentioning these laws. I'm well aware of them, as well as Sections 62-68 of the UK's Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and the relevant laws of most EU member states. The thing is that we must go deeper than these illegal depictions and investigate the users who upload and circulate them. What are they? Why are they doing it? Are they just trying to shock others, or are they actually into this kind of thing? One might be tempted to say "who cares, just ban them and hand them over to the authorities." I don't think this would be enough. I believe there's a reasonably high probability it's the latter, i.e. that they've got these tendencies, and that they don't limit themselves to violating child pornography law only in SL. Which is why I think LL needs to be more vigilant w.r.t. abuse reports and cooperate more closely with relevant institutions in such investigations. I've seen three occasions where I had good reason to suspect sexual ageplay in the past, and duly AR'd them. Of course, as per LL policy, I don't know what happened next.

Yet, in SL there seem to be ranges of products for child avatars that facilitate the creation of such prohibited imagery, sold by content creators who blur the line between acceptable and unacceptable material. In my original post, I proposed a policy for LL to manually vet products for child avatars. I know my suggestions may seem far-reaching and even intrusive. I have concerns regarding whether one could claim LL would essentially censor material destined for child avatars that way - besides the obvious financial and administrative burden for everyone involved. Problem is, though, some content creators seem to think it's OK to insert a sexualised "aesthetic" into content that targets child avatars.

Would a few high-profile bans help send a strong message to others? I think they could help, yes. But also, we need some very clear definitions, especially w.r.t. what a child avatar is. LL could show users non-ambiguous examples of various adult and child avatars, in order to help curb any hysterics against RL-sized / RL-proportioned adult avatars. As was said elsewhere in this thread, we must avoid throwing the baby out along with the dirty bathwater.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

In case such a thing is put before court it does not matter which intentions the acting persons had; the picture alone will be reason enough if the law fits.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

Further investigation is warranted, though, to see if the person(s) involved are part of something bigger.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

The thing is that we must go deeper than these illegal depictions and investigate the users who upload and circulate them. What are they? Why are they doing it? Are they just trying to shock others, or are they actually into this kind of thing?

That's a job for the criminal psychologists, not us. Nor the courts. Proving that there's motive at all is sufficient... and difficult enough without trying to qualify it as a particular subset of motives. None of which really matter when it comes to content moderation/policy enforcement. An infraction is an infraction. There's no appeals process, it's a proprietary platform. And if the infraction is severe enough documenting it and escalating it to relevant real world authorities should follow. Though with VPN technology, it may not be so simple to tell which country or state has jurisdiction.

Yet, in SL there seem to be ranges of products for child avatars that facilitate the creation of such prohibited imagery, sold by content creators who blur the line between acceptable and unacceptable material. In my original post,

The more clearly that line is drawn, the more offenders will scooch right up to it with impunity, doing their best to get away with every last bit of plausible deniability they can. It's better left vague with the administrative freedom to subjectively ban anything deemed inappropriate enough, whether it 'goes too far' or not. It doesn't need to be fair, it needs to discourage those who get punished from wasting their time trying to start over with a new account.

I proposed a policy for LL to manually vet products for child avatars.

I don't think SL is a large enough service to have the budget or labor bandwidth necessary for enough staff to stay on top of the responsibility of 'vetting' products. It's costly/labor intensive enough just trying to keep up with the flood of abuse reports they struggle to keep up with.

Would a few high-profile bans help send a strong message to others?

Like so many internet communities, SL residents are -generally- too self-absorbed and ill-informed to be aware of even the highest-profile goings on in the service. The few that would be deterred by such 'high level bans' are already deterred for other reasons, the rest will remain ignorant or dismissive until they experience the consequences of their poor judgement first hand.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

What you don't seem to understand is that in many countries nowadays the visual depiction of sex with minors alone is already a criminal offense. It doesn't matter if the person behind the avatar is an adult or not, the look alone of the avatar matters.

This includes the USA, where under Federal Law this is forbidden as well and categorized as child pornography. Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor.

There is of course some room of tolerance by SC, but the law is there. More importantly aside the possible, legal headache bad press coverage of that type is always hurting business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_pornography_laws_in_the_United_States

How would you prosecute a case of creating a visual depiction of sex with minors in SL?

Seems to me that, in order to obtain a conviction, the prosecution must be able to show the court of copy of the visual depiction it's complaining about. If someone has a collection of images or videos (whether they're photos or anime) on their hard drive, that's simple. Similarly, if forensic analysis can demonstrate they visited particular URLs and that visiting those URLs causes a temporary image to be created on their computer, that should be sufficient to obtain a conviction.

What does the prosecution produce in court when it alleges that certain events took place in SL if the defendant didn't take screenshots or make a video recording? What image is the defendant said to have created or possessed (the gravamen of the offence)? The cache files on the defendant's computer won't be sufficient, since they just record the textures and objects that the computer has accessed, without giving any indication of how they were arranged.

 

[Cristiano]

To the best of my knowledge, most of us in SL are adults, many of us in our mid-forties and older. So, whatever sexual roleplay happens predominantly happens among adults. Also, there are several safeguards (technical, regulatory, etc.) in place that protect users from getting involved in non-consensual, coerced sexual activity. So, I suppose we can establish that the majority of participants in in-world sexual roleplay are consenting adults.

Now, if we define "ageplay" as "roleplaying as a character whose age is different than your real age", you could say I'm "ageplaying": I'm 44 in RL, and my avatar looks nine years younger. And much of my roleplay in SL is sexual. It's accepted as benign, though, as my avatar has adult proportions, is operated by an RL adult, and engages in sexual activities with adult-looking avatars operated by RL adults.

Sexual ageplay has a very specific meaning. It is not this in the slightest. Not sure why you are muddying the waters of discussion about it.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Sexual ageplay has a very specific meaning. It is not this in the slightest. Not sure why you are muddying the waters of discussion about it.

Right, nobody cares if 38 year old me plays a 22 year old sometimes or a 340 year old magical creature sometimes... I was perplexed when I first read that statement. These laws are to protect minors.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

How would you prosecute a case of creating a visual depiction of sex with minors in SL?

That's not for me to find out or think through, this is why we do have the police, courts and public prosecution officers. The law is there in place, aside that some states might have additional, local laws in place as well, so sooner or later somebody will try to find a way to use it.