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Second Life to banish racy content
San Francisco (AFP) April 22, 2009 Second Life plans to clean up the streets of its virtual mainland by providing stricter control of adult content and sending racy material to a separate faux continent. The announcement comes as Second Life creator Linden Labs moves to enhance the virtual world's viability as a venue for education, conferences, and business. "As we continue to grow, it is crucial that we maintain the diversity of user-generated content while providing enhanced controls to support a wider range of uses," said Linden chief executive Mark Kingdon. "Preferences and community standards vary tremendously across industries, countries and cultures; our goal is to retain as much of the freedom as possible while continuing to push the medium and our platform forward." Second Life will begin rating content Adult, Mature, or PG. Access to adult material will require proof of age, such as valid credit card information, according to Linden. Details on the "migration" of adult-oriented content to a newly created continent are to be released by Linden in coming months. Searches on topics in Second Life will be filtered, with "adult" results appearing only for "residents" with accounts verifying they are at least 18 years old. The number of "active users" at Second Life has grown 25 percent since September, while the amount of time and money spent in the virtual world has climbed by similar percentages, according to Kingdon. People using Second Life socialize in the forms of animated characters called "avatars" controlled by computer keystrokes and mouse clicks. The number of people who have joined the virtual world since it launched in 2003 eclipsed 15 million last year. The average number of people logged on to Second Life at any given time is about 70,000, according to Linden Lab. More than 1.3 million dollars worth of transactions reportedly take place daily in Second Life, where the currency is the Linden dollar. There are more than 15,000 merchants in Second Life selling snippets of computer code that become clothing, hair, art work or other items for avatars. People spent 360 million dollars in Second Life last year, according to Linden. Voice capabilities were added last year so people can talk in-world instead of typing conversations and technology firms with workers spread around the world are increasingly using Second Life as an economical forum for meetings. Schools continue to use Second Life for online classrooms and bands perform on in-world stages. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Second Life finding new life
San Francisco (AFP) March 12, 2009Linden Lab chief executive Mark Kingdon shakes his head when he sees news stories heralding the demise of former Internet darling Second Life. |
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