Dear Congressmen, Politicians, Law Makers, and the Popular Press, and affiliated people, groups and organizations. Before wasting my time and insulting my intelligence, please get your facts straight! I’m particularly talking to Representative Mark Kirk with his recent call for a consumer-alert warning about Second Life. He claims Second Life is a risk for children and they could be sexually exploited. In the same allegation he states he is unaware of any cases in which children are targeted by sexual predators on Second Life. Rarely have I had my intelligence insulted and my time wasted by your want to create false claims, allegations, and stir the proverbial pot. The reason you insult my intelligence is because you are searching for things, that while exist, do not find you, you find them! He’s not the only one who has made such claims, attacks, and allegations about Second Life. Other politicians and media are very eager to label SL as a sex brothel, or a place for terrorists.

While there may be complains about Second Life, one of them is not about age verification. Linden Lab seems to have gone through a very to ensure that its two grids (one for people over 18, others for people 13 – 17) remain as just that. Even the Chicago Tribune states that the intern attempted to log into Second Life as a 10 year old but was denied, when stating she was 18 she was able to access Second Life. The Tribune states:

Within half an hour, the aide said, she was perusing pornography and roaming in “virtual rape rooms” and drug dens.

You insult my intelligence. You insult it because you make these claims based on looking explicitly for this material. You enter Second Life and search “Sex” or “Rape” and come up with results, then write a story based solely on those items. You perform these searches the same way you would search for these topics through Google, Yahoo, MSN or the Yellow Pages! Name an instance where sexually explicit content has approached a person and told them to participate without the user seeking such material or error by downloading a virus onto their system. When was the last time a stripper walked down the street and forced their person onto you for a lap dance? This scenario only occurs when you find and enter the strip club, pornographic site, or content that you find such things. You continue to insult my intelligence because you repeat the same argument while enjoying its advances.

Linden Lab has gone beyond the call to prevent any form of child-adult simulated activities. It has gone so far to create policies that would disallow two consenting adults, one role playing a child the other as an adult, could engage in sexual activity (also known as Age Play). Linden Lab and residents have been very vocal about not wanting those under 18 on the adult grid and has done a very good job in policing this. Second Life isn’t a new source for criminal activity, rapists, and any sexual deviance that does not already exist on the Internet, most of it these instances both online and in Second Life are fantasies being lived out.

While there are legitimate cases of child-Internet-predators (see MySpace and Facebook) their systems are different than that of Second Life. MySpace and Facebook exist on the same network; both the teen and adult grids do not. Before making the case that Second Life is a new source for Internet predators, or a sexual haven, perform research on the topic, get your facts straight, and contact Linden Lab while you’re at it?

In conclusion, please stop these tactics as a form to increase your media coverage, to look better, attain higher ratings and act as if you’re doing something wonderful for your constituents. There are bigger issues to handle such as the Subprime Lending crisis, the economy, and a war that we should not be in.

If you really wanted to make the Internet safer for parents, you would develop a better parenting initiatives, computer literacy programs for parents, push tech companies to make technology more accessible in the design of technology, and promote better parenting!

Sincerely,

- Nexeus Fatale

ps. Tateru Nino also provides some great food for thought on this issue.