Over at New World Notes Hamlet Au has decided to tackle the thorny subject of adult content in virtual worlds. In a blog post entitled : Half of Second Life’s 50 Most Popular Sims Now Adult-Rated: A Lesson for Second Life 2 Hamlet says :
As Linden Lab develops Second Life 2, there’s an important lesson to be learned here:
Forbid pornography and extremely violent content, at least in the first few years of launch before SL 2 achieves mass growth (assuming it does). It’s inevitable that Oculus Rift and other VR platforms will inspire pornographic content, and many of the games set for deployment in VR are already violent, and that’s fine for adults who want to immerse themselves in that kind of content. But virtual porn in particular has always been an impediment to Second Life going mainstream, hurting its brand, scaring away mainstream institutions, and just generally causing it to be a laughingstock for anyone who wasn’t familiar with how much more non-porn content the world contained. (That is to say, just about everybody.) The alternative facing Second Life 2 is what we see now: A niche MMO where roughly half the active users are mainly getting on to get off.
Now whether you agree with Hamlet or not you have to give him credit for having the balls (for want of a better phrase) to raise this subject. I disagree with him and I disagree with him because adult content is already very much a part of mainstream culture. Now before we take one step forward, let’s take a couple of steps back. Back in July Mona Eberhardt posted a blog post entitled : Time to stop bashing Second Life for its sexual side. Mona opens that post with a rather challenging gauntlet to bloggers :
I guess you haven’t really arrived as a Second Life blogger or commentator unless you’ve reached the point where you frown upon “pixel sex”, openly sexualised avatars, or the “skanky” nature of female avatars’ attire in SL. It seems to me that coming to view your in-world romantic and sexual escapades (if any) with feelings of shame actually gives you bonus points. And the sooner you’ve denounced your desire to explore your sexuality in-world, the more respect you’re going to garner. Apparently, your opinions can’t be taken seriously if you’re viewed by others as a sexual person.
The article is a good read and whether you agree with Mona or not, she deserves credit for tackling this subject. Now it’s clear that Hamlet and Mona are coming to this subject from different sides of the fence but it’s also important to remember that both Hamlet and Mona believe passionately in the concept of virtual worlds.
Now to me, banning adult content in Linden Lab’s brave new world is going to be a bad strategy. On the other hand I also think that promoting adult content in the brave new world is a bad strategy. The answer to me is all about sitting on the fence and ensuring that safeguards are in place to avoid some of the situations we have seen during the evolution of Second Life.
When I was a lad in Second Life I owned some mature land and some PG land. One day whilst checking out a PG parcel I noticed I had a new neighbour, who had opened a gentleman’s club. To be fair to my then new neighbour, it was rather tastefully decorated on the outside by risqué images, rather than images that would make a gynaecologist blush as I’ve witnessed in some parts of Second Life. On inspecting my neighbours parcel I realise, my PG parcel was on the edge of a sim that bordered a Mature sim. I had no grounds for complaint against my neighbour, I did have grounds for a complaint with Linden Lab for creating the circumstances whereby a PG sim bordered a mature one.
I raised this with a Linden who said she knew about such issues and that they were considering consolidating PG sims. However that’s not what happened, Linden Lab added a new category of Adult. A lot of us at the time (yes I was one of them) called upon Linden Lab to create a PG continent, our calls fell on deaf ears. I’m sure this was due to practical reasons rather than Linden Lab just ignoring us but the issue was plain for all to see, create an environment in which people are not taken by surprise (unless they want to be of course).
Linden Lab’s next generation platform should include content ratings from the start, not just on land, but also on products. Therefore if a product is not of a suitable rating to be rezzed on land of a certain rating, it won’t be rezzed. If someone does not meet the criteria to visit land of a certain rating, they won’t be able to go there.
People are going to engage in adult activities in a virtual world, as they are outside the virtual world. Adult content and adult activity are mainstream, if they weren’t the human race would be in mortal danger. The problem that many in the early years of Second Life experienced was finding adult content when they weren’t looking for it. That’s the issue to tackle. Linden Lab have made great strides in that direction with search requiring people to opt in to discover adult results. Linden Lab’s brave new world has an advantage in so much as they can avoid some of the glaring issues Second Life suffered, they can prevent the issue of PG sims neighbouring mature. Linden Lab have experience of this.
Linden Lab have been extremely brave in their embracing of adult content and with their brave new world in embryonic form, now is not the time to lose nerve. Sex sells, but there’s more to virtual life than sex. Linden Lab should welcome all, but allow people to find the experiences they desire in a sensible manner. This is really about respect and giving people the tools to enjoy their own freedom. Linden Lab have been good at this in the past, they should be able to embrace these concepts in the future too.
The idea of banning adult content from a freestyle virtual world like Second Life is wrong on a multitude of levels. It is counter-intuitive, counter-productive, hypocritical, and can lead to all sorts of other, unintended problems, such as chilling effects.
First of all, banning the depiction of nude human bodies can stifle and prevent not only artistic creativity (like it or not, the nude human form has always been quite prominent in art throughout the ages), but also discourse on health matters; from breast cancer to breastfeeding, and all sorts of topics in between.
Second, the hypocrisy: It’s not OK to show a naked female breast, or a naked human body, but it’s perfectly OK to show a human get hanged, drawn, and quartered, or shot to death, or put on the electric chair, or under the pendulum, or waterboarded, or…? This concept is far beyond me. Also, it’s perfectly OK to show a man’s naked chest, but not a woman’s? This is laughable.
Third, banning “adult” content will only lead to either having the original Second Life getting to stay around long after its expiry date, or to an exodus of fashion and furniture designers who cater to the sexual desires of people in-world – they’ll seek other alternatives, and rightly so.
If Linden Lab follows Hamlet’s advice, it’ll have all sorts of people up in arms against it, and for very good reason. Yes, maybe the most conservative people of the academic community will be appeased, as they won’t associate their endeavours with a virtual world where people have pixel sex, but why should we take this attitude of theirs seriously? They’re perfectly OK browsing and perusing the internet, which has a baker’s dozen of sex. Why don’t they have a problem with the sexual content of the internet? Because they can’t control it? Well, they can’t control what virtual world developers and providers do with their platforms either. So, what I can tell them is c’est la vie.
I want to dwell on the hypocritical aspect of such outlooks a bit: I’m sorry, but how can I be expected to take the “there’s too much sex in SL” complaints of someone who has a cabaret with sexually-themed sketches and drag shows on their sim seriously? And also, do you remember all the drama that followed SL’s “bikini babes” ad campaign, even though it wasn’t really sexually-themed at all?
Finally, on how G- and M-rated regions can end up being close, or even adjacent to each other… In RL, you might find yourself living next to a neighbour who sunbathes nude in their backyard. Ditto in SL. In RL, you might find yourself living next to a couple that has an active sex life, or you might find yourself living next to a celibate person, or next to an asexual person. The same happens in SL.
Finally, if having M- or A-rated regions next to you is a problem, you can very well go and rent land from a landlord that provides a bunch of G-rated sims. Problem solved. You can also arrange with your neighbour to use their land tools so that people who are outside their “offending” region / parcel can’t see avatars and can’t see that parcel’s open chat when they cam into it. And you can set things up on your own land accordingly. Or you can get yourself a region (homestead or full region) over which you’ll have complete control, like so many people chose to do. To wrap it up, the land tools are already there, and we can use them to suit our needs.
The larger question is: Does anybody really think LL has any clue on how to deal with mature themes? The never understood the educational component, never understood machinima and the artists. So all the Heathers out there hope LL will somehow magically handle the variety of mature themes out there.
Yeah, “land tools are already there.” See? I did read at least the last sentence.