Yesterday, Scott pointed out a BBC article about child abuse claims in Second Life. (Wow, SL really is in the hot seat these days, huh?) The article reports that authorities in Germany are headed into the world to uncover the trafficking of real and “virtual” child pornography. A recent TV investigation, says BBC, “also uncovered so called ‘age play’ groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children.”
There are a number of things going on here. 1) If SL really is being used to traffic kiddy porn (as in porn involving actual, real-life children), that certainly should be stopped, either by Linden or the authorities themselves. 2) However, we need to be super clear about what we mean by “virtual” child pornography. Is this just kiddy porn in an electronic form? Or does it involve rendered, non-real children? 3) What does “age play” has to do with any of this?
Obviously the question of “rendered” child pornography is a tough one. Is it moral? Who knows. But it seems to me we have to draw the legal line at what does and what doesn’t involve real-life children. Age play, on the other hand, is something totally different. It’s a type of sexual play in which consenting adults pretend to be children (or simply act like children) because it gives them pleasure.
Does age play fit in our normative understanding of sex? Of course not. But that hardly means it should be condemned, or even mentioned in the same breath as real-life child pornography. Then again, it’s not the first time age play has been wrongfully judged by a normally respectable source. The ironic thing is, in my experience, you run into many more people in SL who want to play as children then people who want to play-act “abusing” them.
Thanks for the chance to rant, Scott!
May 10th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Just as a point of information -
I’m the avatar pictured in the photo accompanying your piece. And yes, it’s fine to use it, thanks for asking - but it’s a slightly strange selection with which to illustrate this story, as in no way does it relate to age play. The dress is an adult clothing item by a goth designer, not a child’s outfit. The avatar wearing it (me) is clearly an adult, with an adult woman’s body, at at nearly six feet tall, nobody in SL is going to mistake me for a child.
SL does allow members to shrink their bodies down to child-like proportions, but this is absolutely not an example of that.
May 11th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Hi, Sabrina. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. My implication isn’t at all that your avatar is a child (though I understand how you could get that from the post), but that you’re wearing child-like clothing (the outfit is named after Gretel). At the time I was putting up the post, I wasn’t in-world, so I was looking for something at least related.
P.S. I must say, your avatar is really gorgeous!
May 12th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
It’s interesting how the same thing can look totally different depending on your context. I’m looking at it from a fashion perpective and to me, it’s clearly a Goth-inspired, ironic take on a traditional costuming style. It has skulls and safety pins, so I wouldn’t have seen it as child-like, especially with, you know, the 9 inch hooker heels.
But yes, obviously, Gretel comes from a children’s story. You’re aware that there is clothing made specifically for child avatars in SL, right? We don’t cover it, but it is out there!
May 13th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Yup, I know it’s out there :). I was just looking quickly for an image, and used yours since it seemed child-inspired, if not child-like. You’re definitely right though that it has lots of mature elements.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:29 am
In part, the reason that this story involves Germany is because of a peculiarity of that country’s laws. The way I understand it, images of what appears to be an adult having sexual intercourse with what appears to be a child are illegal. This applies even if they’re photographs of real-live adults having sex and one of them looks like a child. It applies even if an individual has drawn a picture of adult-on-child action for their own personal use.
Thus, although in the US it’s a moral issue, in Germany it’s a legal issue. Normative ideas of sex differ in different cultures and in different times. Some of those norms make it into laws. The fairness and appropriateness of those laws can be an issue, but that’s not what seems to be going on here: it’s a basically a story of someone breaking a law that seems to have a measure of support in German jurisdiction.
Besides, I should imagine that the argument of German legislators in favour of their laws against fictional child sex images is that they can lead to a trade in actual child sex images, which seems indeed to have been uncovered by the investigative reporter here. They’d thus suggest that irrespective of how many adults are engaged in this kind of activity without any danger of turning fantasy into reality, for enough individuals there is such a danger that the laws need to be enforced. For them, the connection discovered between SL child play and real images of real children being sexually abused would be justification for those laws.
Oh, standard disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, I’m only going on what people have told me about the law in Germany regarding this topic, and I may have completely misunderstood it.
Richard
May 15th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Thanks very much for the background info!
I should imagine that the argument of German legislators in favour of their laws against fictional child sex images is that they can lead to a trade in actual child sex images, which seems indeed to have been uncovered by the investigative reporter here.
The problem with this argument though is that implies a cause/effect relationship that I don’t think we can really determine. In this case, was there RL porn trafficking because there was virtual porn trafficking and/or age play? I would say, no, these things were only happening simultaneously, even if within the same crowd of people, but it’s very hard to tell.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
You raised couple of questions but I will touch just one (I did other a lot on my blog and it is pain to repeat myself over and over).
It is not on Linden Lab to stop criminals. They are providing internet platform, they are not police nor court of law. If there is a case of real-life child porn in SL they are legally obliged to cooperate with the authorities, and as far as we know, they are willoing to do that. Nothing over that is on them to do.
January 12th, 2008 at 3:19 am
“it’s interesting how the same thing can look totally different depending on your context. I’m looking at it from a fashion perpective and to me, it’s clearly a Goth-inspired, ironic take on a traditional costuming style. It has skulls and safety pins, so I wouldn’t have seen it as child-like, especially with, you know, the 9 inch hooker heels.”
Actually, to me it looks a bit like the costume a 16-17 year old wore to my school’s Halloween party. I like that kind of thing which is why I took note of it. Not a “child’s” for sure but maybe of someone who could be considered underage. That is why I find making such a thing illegal so wrong. Who is to say if a fairy, dwarf, or even a normal avatar who may appear a young teen is underage? How does one judge age? Looks alone?