Massively^™

As you are probably already aware, Linden Lab have suddenly decided to take an active role in the Second Life fifth anniversary this year, overriding the organizing committee and excluding a number of the invited communities from presentation this year.

Decisions, ultimately, get made because they seem like the best of the available options at the time. Nobody sits down and thinks, "Hey, this is my second best option. I should go with that!" -- they only go with the worse options when nothing better seems to be possible.

So -- why did Linden Lab make this one?

Lalinda Lovell, the person behind the Wonderland site that was the focus of the Sky News virtual child sex scandal is apparently promoting a new grid, called litesim. The server software apparently is under development and due to be released under GPL Free Software licenses at some future date, so it isn't exactly clear if the code is based on Open Simulator or some other backend.

The system sports three tiers of users: Free, Basic and Premium, the latter two both having a monthly fee and cashout options. Lovell's advertising for this grid emphasizes "Freedom and privacy guaranteed" however the litesim terms of service specifically state that a number of things (like child pornography, and anything that violates either US or UK laws - that would include simulations of underage sexuality) are not permitted.

Sitting in the Sky News venue, waiting for the debate, I'm struck by the number of child avatars in attendance in this packed house. I expected the audience to contain at least a few of them. Maybe as many as a quarter. Most of the avatars represented however are child avatars. Maybe some people who do not usually wear them are doing so just for this occasion, perhaps not. It is, after all of great interest to the community.

The debate is supposed to be on "Do real-world rules apply here", off the back of the recent video report by Farrell on an incident of sexual ageplay within Second Life. Well, of course they do, and they are applied. That would make for a very short debate. It's still fifteen minutes before showtime, the Sky News broadcast audio servers have crackled and died, Jason Farrell is on stage and we still don't know who the participants in the debate are going to be.

Linden Lab has responded to the recent Sky News/Five News report on sexual ageplay between adults in Second Life with a formal statement.

In it, Linden Lab continues to hold a strong position against such content -- although, we think the statement itself would carry far weight if it were not almost word-for-word the same statement issued in response to Farrell's Wonderland scandal some several months ago.

Sky's Five News reporter Jason Farrell who broke the Wonderland Scandal last year, has been back in Second Life with a young girl avatar, and hooked up with an adult avatar for sex at another site created by the creators of the now-removed Wonderland.

Second Life users had previously complained about the Wonderland site in Second Life for some time, particularly those users who had avatars that were either juvenile in appearance or diminutive, but virtual world operator Linden Lab took no action against Wonderland, claiming there was "no firm evidence of wrongdoing" -- nevertheless, the Wonderland site disappeared, apparently due to Linden Lab intervention sometime after the whole mess hit the mainstream media.

UK media outlets are blowing up with stories of "Wonderland", a virtual playground in Second Life where Ageplay is the go. Sister-site Second Life Insider has been following the various stages of this story over the last day, including its growing coverage by mainstream press and the reply from SL developers Linden Lab.

For those who need a little background, Ageplay is when an adult roleplays a child. This need not be for sexual purposes, but to use the quote from SL Insider of Sky News reporter Jason Farrell, "Wonderland is a virtual children's playground where paedophiles cruise and kids are solicited." Even though there probably aren't real children controlling the characters, it is still an offensive community for others within SL, and a Kid Avs community representative has already spoken out about it. It is also something that SL fans wouldn't want to be mistakenly associated with -- now that it has hit the mainstream, it may be one of the first things that people remember about Second Life, akin to "Oh, wasn't that the computer game for pedophiles?".

The response Linden Lab provided to SL Insider essentially says that they have found no wrongdoing after investigating the Wonderland community. I'm not sure how well the rest of the media will take this answer. Provided below is a link to SL Insider's on-going coverage of this story as it develops.