There has been a lot of chatter recently on forums and blogs regarding adult content, the type of adult content that appears in Second Life and the very graphic imagery and descriptions of said content. The issue really manifests itself when you open up the viewer and have adult preferences ticked or you open search.
Events, hot places etc. appear and some of the imagery is extremely graphic, so are some of the names of parcels. Does this really need to be the case? I do feel people need to take some responsibility for having adult preferences selected, although in the case of the viewer showing these images before you login, that might need addressing, especially if you’re in a household where the computer is shared.
The thing is though, that even with adult preferences selected, do parcel owners and sim owners really need to have such graphic imagery in the first place? The Adult section of The Destination Guide manages to tastefully list adult destinations, why can’t everyone else?
I don’t really see the need for pornographic images to be in the parcel settings, risque imagery would portray the content equally as well. I also don’t see the need for graphic descriptions, brothel, bordello, escorts can all work without the need for vulgarity in listings. People who want to find such content, will find it equally as well without parcel and sim owners resorting to four letter words to reach their audience.
Linden Lab have taken a very grown up attitude to adult content, they accept that it’s going to happen, instead of burying their heads in the sand and pretending it doesn’t, but I can’t help feel that people abuse that good natured and grown up approach when they post pornographic images in their parcel settings. I mean if people want pornographic images on their adult parcel, then that’s the parcel owners call, but to have it show up in search? I’m really not sure that needs to happen.
The current situation is leading to some people to call for certain content to be banned. I’m not a fan of that as what happens between consenting adults should stay between consenting adults, I’m not going to question morality and people’s fetishes, those are private affairs .. well as long as they don’t engage with explicitly forbidden by the terms of service practices anyway.
Other people are calling for the hot topics that appear on login or the events in search, to have an opt out feature. I think there’s some merit in that, most definitely on the login screen where adult content appears before you’ve even logged in. I do like seeing destinations and hot places on login as I find places I’d never have heard of before, it’s a useful feature but options are always good.
Some people are asking why they can’t click on an event or place and block receiving event or search listings from that particular place, again this would be a handy option.
Others are calling for another maturity rating for the more extreme content because adult is such a broad setting, for example photorealistic skins are adult, but someone looking for a skin probably does not want to be hit with pornographic imagery. I’m not a fan of this suggestion because then Linden Lab have to define extreme content, which plays out badly and puts them in a very uncomfortable position.
However I do think a happy medium can be reached by pornographic images simply not appearing in search, full stop. This means you won’t see them on login, you won’t see them on search, you won’t see them in the event feed but you will still be able to find the content if that’s your desire. As I said earlier, The Destination Guide manages to tastefully promote adult venues, proving that there really is no need to resort to vulgarity to advertise your wares.
This was always the problem with the ratings categories, and the way they seem to be stepped down one notch. G is “Disneyfied”, even when SL is already for fairly mature people. M is PG, and everything else is Adult. There is no room for “mature themes, but not porn”.
I am actually in favor of adding an “X-rated” beyond “Adult”, since it is probably unrealistic to expect a shift in the rating to let “M” actually mean “Mature” (and I, too, am a little tired of getting body parts smacked in the face every time I open search).
The only issue I have with an x rating is defining it, as you highlight well in your post, there are already problems with definitions. I too have always felt the ratings are a notch down, general is way too squeaky clean, I can recall questioning why references to alcohol weren’t allowed on general land when World Of Warcraft, which is 13+, has taverns galore and even a beer festival every year.
On the body parts, I’m in agreement, there’s really no need for it.
I have huge problem with the rl photos in those adult ads – I always thought that was against tos but probably just dreamt that. 🙂
Well events are according to the website, supposed to be pg rated, but then again so were profiles at one time. Neither rule seems to be enforced.
The RL photos, really aren’t needed, I don’t mean to start sounding like an old prude, but this sort of content can be advertised without the graphic images that currently accompany so many places. I also suspect that in many cases, people don’t own the rights to the images anyway, but I guess that’s a different issue.
Why not take an extra step (in addition to what you all correctly suggest) and follow Flickr’s route and enable the users set the maturity settings for their profiles and feeds? Just a thought.
Errr I would need to figure out why I can’t get the Flickr settings to stick before deciding if this has potential!