With the coming of age verification to second life in the near future I have a question.
Its a given that the crack den will be marked as adult content and people like me who refuse to send and pay a third party company hired by lindenlabs any money for a service I do not want as well as refuse to send them a copy of my drivers license and social security number will be locked out when my profile changes from payment info on file to not age verified.
Will this cover vodou as well? I would hate to log on one day and find myself locked out of my own property because of this. Then again will this make vodou the new griefer spot since most of them will also be locked out of the crack den and will be wandering around amoungst our homes.
This is a very bad policy that linden labs is putting in effect and I think if everyone were to band together and not use this service this company they plan to hire would pack up and leave since money talks and we all know what walks and they do not see profit to be made.
Of course we know that wont happen since people in general are nothing but sheep that follow the flock. In case you have had your head in the sand the past few months and do not know what I am talking about here is a copy of the linden blog discussing this act of stupidity.

Further Clarification Regarding Age Verification
Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 9:20 PM PDT by: Robin Linden

As I’ve been talking with people about the process and reasons for verifying Resident age, a few questions remain, so I’d like to call out a few key points:

- verifying age is completely voluntary

- you will need to verify age only if you want to enter parcels/estates flagged as containing adult content.

- adult content is that which is overtly, graphically, or explicitly sexual in nature or intensely violent.

- flagged parcels must be located within M-rated regions, but M-rated regions that aren’t flagged (i.e. they don’t contain adult content) can be accessed without age verification

- age verification will have a one time fee associated with it. For those with premium accounts Linden dollar fee will be nominal. Basic accounts will pay a higher, but still relatively small Linden dollar fee. These fees haven’t been set yet.

- everyone will be able to verify at least one account. We are still deciding how many alt accounts will also be able to be verified.

- payment information was never meant to be proof of age. In fact, credit cards are not restricted to people over the age of 18, nor are credit cards available in all countries. We’re looking for a way to verify age that reflects the way each country provides identification to its citizens. We have been recognizing accounts as verified when we have payment information because this means the account holder has given us enough information not to be fully anonymous. But it was never meant to be used as a proxy for age verification. Since we’re dealing with content and behaviors inappropriate for minors, we need to specifically verify age.

The timeline for implementation, the final processes for each country, and the associated fees are still being determined. We’ll continue to update you as we have more information. In the meantime, please continue to send us your feedback and ideas."

A bunch of BS isnt it? A few parents who need to learn parenting skills and watch their children or shouldnt have had any to begin with have ruined it for all of us. If you read the feedback in the blogs not to many are for it but linden labs is still pressing forward. My guess they get a cut or payment for each account using this new service so they will be here to stay.
Then we say well we wont do this and will do business as usual.
Wrong it gets better. "Keeping Second Life Safe, Together
Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 6:00 PM PDT by: daniellinden

The diversity of things to see and do within Second Life is almost unimaginable, but our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form. Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life.

Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content."
Maybe the sexual part of RP should be kept in private IM so groups like safety first (read their group charter) that I saw a member of in the CD hosp my first day there cannot use our RP against us.
Lets be careful out there people. RP is a fun way to express oneself and would hate to see it go.