After I left for RL work yesterday, Governor Linden published a quickie article on the Big Blog to inform us of where the discussion over adult content changes stood. Nothing deep here; just a distillation of where the Forum discussions started by the Lindens have traveled to, and the top concerns raised there. According to the piece, the main questions for solving are:
- Enforcement of the content demarcation
- Definitions — what is “adult content”
- Scope — how far-ranging this will go
- Impact on businesses
- Impact on private estates
- “Why not a PG Continent?”
- Personal information and 3rd-party partners — probably the “age verification” issue
I suspect number 6 is the easiest to answer right now, and I haven’t even been involved in any of the discussions. There will be a PG continent, simply because all the “by definition” raunchy stuff on the Mainland will be moved to the planned red-light continent. Having said that, the definition itself has still to be thrashed out. That will, of course, be one of the hairier problems faced by the Lab, will contain continual “grey areas,” and will no doubt bring constant charges of unequal enforcement against the Lindens by various quarters, based on that exact amount of “grey area.”
I’m sure Linden Lab realized that they were brewing up a potential hurricane when they began this initiative. I just hope they realize how ongoing that hurricane will be, how long it will last, and how ugly it can get in both the short and long term. The Governor has been under a lot of criticism over the past year or so for the banking ban, gambling ban, and various other decisions that were imposed without discussing with the Residents first. Now they’re gonna find out the true meaning of democracy: that, even when the public is involved with the rulemaking process, no turn goes unstoned.
(Addendum: Kitt, my other half, suggests a very simple rule: if it involves sex, it goes to the mature continent. Even if it’s just as benign as holding hands and kissing, it goes. I can imagine the fanfare of welcome that definition would bring….)
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