Second Life adult content updates: Viewers, namechanges, grannies and grade-schoolers
by Tateru Nino 
Jun 2nd 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds
The 1.23 Second Life viewer with the necessary support for Adult content is still being rushed to meet a June deadline, the exact reason for which seems a little unclear. There's some outstanding issues with the viewer release-candidates, but it seems fairly low on actual showstoppers and looks likely to make an official release in the roughly one fortnight remaining.
Definitions for the content ratings have been finalized, though they show little noticeable deviation from Linden Lab's originally proposed drafts. It appears that all the changes have been simple explanatory wording changes. The PG rating holds a couple of surprises, though.
Second Life's PG rating has always been something of a minefield of contradictory definitions, policy-statements and documents. Searching through the knowledge-base could easily turn up between 3 and 5 conflicting definitions at any time.
However, what constitutes PG, says the Lab, has not changed, "[N]ew PG guidelines appeared to be much more strict than our previous PG classification. In fact, the definition of PG has not actually changed, and this is written up more clearly now."
Here's that clear write-up for you: "A Region may be designated PG if it does not advertise or make available content or activity that's sexually explicit, violent or depicts nudity. Likewise, sexually-oriented objects such as "sex beds" or poseballs may not be located or sold in PG regions.
As we've also often said, PG regions are areas where you'd feel free to say and do things that you'd be comfortable saying and doing in front of your grandmother, or a grade school class."
The grandmothers and grade-schoolers yardstick has appeared in a few of the PG definitions published by the Lab over the last few years. It appears to be here to stay.
Grade-school ages vary by region, but are generally in the 6-13. So Second Life PG must therefore be (and apparently always has been) "suitable for display to a six-year-old audience" – That's how it reads to us, anyway. We're open to alternative interpretations, but the text and intent seem pretty clear. Second Life may not exactly be replete with grade-schoolers, but it's certainly brim-full of grannies in our experience.
The adult continent is now to be called Zindra instead of Ursula. We can only speculate about the name-change. Some suggest that the original Ursula name was a intentional slight towards Germany's minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Ursula von der Leyen.
Whatever the actual reasoning behind the original name, Zindra seems a little easier to puzzle out. A large part of the software that actually drives Second Life is called Indra. X-rated Indra would be Xindra, but some cultures habitually pronounce a leading X differently, as 'ecksindra' rather than 'zindra'. Spelling it as Zindra both eliminates pronunciation-based confusion and partially obscures an otherwise emotionally-loaded 'X' prefix.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eebahgum said on 11:21AM 6-02-2009
I just don't know why LL are fannying about with this sort of thing. I mean I don't think SL, would keep a six year olds attention for as long as say Free realms would?
Who takes notice of the rating of a sim , other then the sim owner, anyways?
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Tateru Nino said on 11:33AM 6-02-2009
Well, the first thing I do when I go anywhere in SL is at least check the parcel I'm on for any notices stipulating rules or codes of conduct that the owner(s) may have set out. When you're on someone else's turf it makes sense to follow their rules (or to leave).
Checking the sim-rating is a part of that quick checklist I go through whenever I arrive somewhere.
Ari Blackthorne said on 12:41PM 6-02-2009
I *love* PG regions.
Low lag as there are no clubs or large events, most of the builds are prefab homes so not as much unsightly nonsense.
The word that jumps out at me in the PG description (definition) is "located" ( as in "may not be located or sold in PG regions" - which brings-up the old descriptions Robin Linden threw out back in 2006/07 where the 'definition' was referring to PUBLIC areas and that private areas (i.e. your home) was more or less esxcempt as long as you made good-faith effort to follow the rules.
I don't know.
I sell thrones. Pretty tame as far as a lot of SL furniture goes.
Easy enough for me to remove the one menu that leads to the "naughty" animations and leave the rest.
But this does leave more questions than it answers. I suspect Linden Lab also refers to "open spaces visible to the public at large" with regard to this.
So I pontificated on the subject myself LOL
http://commonsensible.net/2009/06/02/second-life-pg-regions-pointless-gloom/
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Eris said on 12:52PM 6-02-2009
That Grandmother reference seems ridiculous to me - one or two of my SL friends ARE Grandmothers and have said or done things that would make any Linden blush. Apart from revealing LL's ageist stereotyping does it really mean anything?
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Rai said on 8:37AM 6-05-2009
reminds me of a documentary about the porn movie "deep throat" I saw. some reporters in front of a movie theatre ask a grandma what she's doing here. she smiles and says: "I want to watch a dirty movie."
Bri said on 1:19PM 6-02-2009
Isn't enough of SL barren and totally devoid of life with parcelling everybody and everything off even further? Far too much of this beautiful world looks like the aftermath of a Twilight Zone episode as it is. Except, of course, the mature areas, which, as I understand it, you must have a paid account to enter under the new rules.
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Tateru Nino said on 1:22PM 6-02-2009
No, unverified accounts still get access to Mature and PG areas. Only the adults-only areas require verification/payment.
Ciaran Laval said on 1:54PM 6-02-2009
Sarem you'll find far more stories about predators meeting children or trying to meet children via WoW than you will via Second Life.
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Marx Dudek said on 1:57PM 6-02-2009
Yay, troll! *nom nom nom*
My best guess was that "Ursula" was named in homage(?) of Ursula Andress, who played Honey Ryder in "Dr. No" and was also known for some softcore European "art" films.
To be honest, I kind of liked the name. The new one? Not so much. Why not go with another 70s bombshell, Xaviera (Hollander) - "The Happy Hooker"?
(And dammit, why is trolling so predictably *boring* these days? "Get a job", "Paedophile" ... pfft, Young Republicans these days.)
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Sarem said on 2:06PM 6-02-2009
That is a completely lie.
1) WAY more of the wow populace is young.
2) Way less Real Life meet ups happen via wow. Raiders aren't "friends" like you losers think your making.
3) People don't Masturbate to wow. There is virtually no sexual elements in wow, except for one loading screen that makes a Blood Elf Priest look like a pornstar.
4) Second Life has WAY more people exploring sexual ambiguity than wow does.
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Ciaran Laval said on 2:47PM 6-02-2009
"People don't Masturbate to wow."
Oh do behave! Cybering happens in WoW, only it's kids and adults rather than adults and adults as is the case with Second Life.
Yes there is far more sexual content in Second Life, it's aimed mainly at those over 18 but the cases of a predator luring a kid to a meeting are more likely in WoW, google it, it doesn't take long to find the news stories. Try a story like that for Second Life.
Sarem said on 3:09PM 6-02-2009
Thats all second life is, A bunch of weirdos and losers looking for some sexual validation. I stick by it. People don't masturbate to wow. avatars dont wear lingerie or have overly pronounced sexual features.
I fact, cybering in ban-able.
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CCon99 said on 5:56PM 6-02-2009
So I guess the 5 million plus downloads of WoW's nude mod were DLing it for artistic reasons? Or was the nude mod made for those Raiders? ;)
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Ari Blackthorne said on 6:03PM 6-02-2009
@Marx -
speaking of trolling, your final (political) statement was uncalled for and you know it.
I'll leave it at that, I hope you will, too.
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Uccello Poultry said on 6:49PM 6-02-2009
" ... Likewise, sexually-oriented objects such as "sex beds" or poseballs may not be located or sold in PG regions."
Hence, I'm selling my land in Shouldice where I had a Sometimes Home.
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Snowyjoe said on 9:44PM 6-02-2009
Once Playboy Online goes live.... i wonder what would happen to Secound Life's adult audiances....
Well... people that enjoy creating a buisness will stay... but people that only play for the sake of personal pleasure will probably leave, thats my guess anyway.
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kanomi said on 11:53PM 6-02-2009
"Hello, my name is Sarem. My avatar is a monkey. That is ironic, because while even chimpanzees have visited outer space, I haven't managed to move the relatively smaller mass of my head outside the orbit of my ass.
"I'm only 14 years old and I haven't any idea of what Second Life is about, but one time this kid on the playground said they have furries and icky girls on it! Then we giggled and ran away.
"It's fun to play WOW. I click a button 100 times and the sheep is dead. MOO says the sheep!
"Bark bark! says Sarem the monkey!"
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danielravennest said on 3:59AM 6-03-2009
Dear Tateru,
The other important item released was Knowledge Base page 6345, which details the move to the new continent. They still insist on going first come, first served, which means the lucky first people will get the best land, or grab a central location in a region. This will prevent later arrivals from getting similar land to what they had before, or from even being able to place their parcel if they have a large one.
God forbid you were away for the weekend when the tickets open up, you will get the location downstream of the Zindra waste processing plant.
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