Second Life has always been heralded as the next step in virtual living, and the Mecca of free, unhindered speech, but much like public pools, moustaches and Chinatown pedophiles had to go and ruin it for the rest of us.
According to this blurb over at the BBC (the only company to ever make the corpse of George Orwell cry), German police have been following allegations that some Second Life inhabitants have been trading in "child abuse" images. While it's entirely possible that people are trading pictures of burn marks and wire hangers, here in the Yoo-Ess-of-Ay, we prefer the term "kiddie porn", or "dude, seriously, that's f*cked up".
Here's a snippet regarding the German news programme that led to the police investigation:
Second Life, as its name implies, is a virtual world in which members create an avatar and then use that character to live out a separate existence.
The investigation was carried out by Nick Schader from the Report Mainz news programme who is also a member of Second Life.
Mr Schader was asked to pay to attend meetings where virtual and real child pornography was being shown.
Members of this group also offered to put him in touch with traders of real child pornography.
The investigation also uncovered so called "age play" groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children.
Information gathered during the report was passed to the prosecutor's office in Halle who said it hoped to track down the German Second Life user who shared the images of virtual child pornography.
Whatever happened to the Second Life of my youth? In those days, you would always have a kind word for your elders, you would always carry an apple to feed the copulating centaurs, and you never even contemplated child pornography (aside from the weekly Muppet Babies Scat Film Festival).
[Via Game|Life, non-sexual shoulder rub to Something Awful for the only Second Life image I've ever liked.]
Contest:
6:41 AM on 05.11.2007
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"The investigation also uncovered so called "age play" groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children."
I mean, I'm against raping children and everything but isn't the above technically "thoughtcrime"? I mean isn't it legal for people to act out their fantasies if they are consenting adults?
The age play thing was recently cracked down on over in Linden Labs, but this is new to me, yet really not surprising. It's interesting to see that they're suceeding in using virtual means to capture real life offenders.
Here's hoping they'll do the humane thing and chop their balls off.
Trading actual child porn though, hopefully they'll get raped but good. Uh... the paedos, not the kids...
someone really should mobalise against those guys( i'm lookin at you poland)
They used to be completely passive, but that side of Second Life has been changing a lot lately. They change things and alter rules now without even passing them by the Residents, just so they won't get their asses sued by high brow governments getting their panties in a bunch.