May 2007 blogposts

BBC: Child porn 'found in Second Life'

Second Life (SL) is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child pornography in the online world.  This involves not only actions by avatars (i.e. cartoon child porn), but also the exchange of RL (real life) child porn between avatars (accounts) on SL.  This news has already hit the U.K. and Australian papers, and will probably be picked up by the North American newsmedia very quickly.

Well, as one of hundreds of librarians who has eagerly explaining and demo'ing SL to colleagues as the Next Big Thing in virtual reference service, this is certainly going to torpedo any plans for our educational institutions to get on board.

I pity anyone who is trying to get a SL-based proposal for an educational/library project through an approval committee. And that sort of "there's no way we're even going to TOUCH this now" reaction will also play out in non-profits and corporations around the world. 

I very firmly believe that child abuse (virtual or real) needs to be rooted out of SL, and I also believe that the perpetrators should face severe legal consequences as well, including jailtime. 

But I can see that the seizure and amplification of this issue by the tabloids will negatively impact SL overall and, by implication, tar the people who visit SL as well.   It will be just as if everybody thinks you're gay only because you come from San Francisco. 

Ridiculous, but it will happen.

UPDATE 1:52 P.M.  The news has finally reached the CBC.

Vancouver Police Department now recruiting via Second Life

"The VPD has been prepping to become the first real police force to join the more than 6.7 million inhabitants who live, work, play and learn inside their computers -- an initiative aimed at finding real-life people with computer know-how to join the force."  (Yeah I know; it's not 6.7 million inhabitants, it's 6.7 million accounts, but many people have multiple accounts, and many accounts lie unused.  A truer figure would be about 1.5-2 million, I figure.)

(...yeah, yeah I know... I said I would be taking a break from the Internet. Perhaps I should amend that to say that I am taking a break from Second Life...which has been sucking up WAAAY too much of my time these past two months.  Of course, what do I then do?  Spend my time reading reports and articles ABOUT Second Life....*sigh*)