Congressman sees evil in Second Life

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: David P. Reed [dpreed () reed com]
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:58 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Congressman sees evil in Second Life

For IP if you want:

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937956-7.html


  Ban 'Second Life' in schools and libraries, Republican congressman says

Posted by Anne Broache
<http://www.news.com/8300-10784_3-7.html?authorId=102>

    <photo deleted>
    Some politicos in the U.S. Congress may be embracing /Second Life/
    (pictured here is California Democrat George Miller's press
    conference in the virtual world last year). But Illinois Republican
    Mark Kirk says it's a danger zone for children and must be blocked,
    by law, on school and library computers.

    (Credit: Linden Lab)

A Republican congressman who has sponsored legislation banning access to
social-networking Web sites in schools and libraries has found a new
target of displeasure: /Second Life/.

Rep. Mark Kirk, who is seeking re-election this year, staged a press
conference at a library in his suburban Chicago district on Tuesday to
highlight what he called the "dangers" of the virtual world to children.
Flanked by local officials, he also released a letter
<http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/il10_kirk/Kirk_Parents_and_Police_Delete_Online_Predators.html>
asking Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic to "take
action to warn parents of the similar dangers and sexually explicit
content found on /Second Life/."

Kirk said he was appalled that /Second Life/ has no age verification
features built into its registration process, and he claimed that there
are "countless locations" outside of the service's teen-designated area
where virtual prostitution, drug deals, and "other wholly inappropriate
activities" occur.

According to a /Chicago Tribune/ report
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-online-predator-alert-06-may06,0,894825.story>,
Kirk recounted an aide's failed attempt to create an avatar on the site
as a 10-year-old--and a subsequently successful attempt to log in as an
18-year-old.

"Sites like /Second Life/ offer no protections to keep kids from virtual
"rape rooms," brothels, and drug stores," Kirk said, according to a
press release
<http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/il10_kirk/Kirk_Parents_and_Police_Delete_Online_Predators.html>.
"If sites like /Second Life/ won't protect kids from obviously
inappropriate content, the Congress will."

/Second Life/ creator Linden Lab, for its part, released a statement,
according to various local news reports, saying, "Members of the /Second
Life/ community, including Linden Lab staff, actively monitor against
minors accessing the (adult portion of the) service." But Kirk said
company officials have acknowledged that it's possible for teens to get
into the adult portion of the service, and vice versa.

Kirk's comments were yet another attempt to drum up support for a bill,
which he reintroduced last year, known as the Deleting Online Predators
Act <http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-6160610-7.html>.

That proposal <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.01120:>
would require schools and libraries that receive federal subsidies
through a program called E-rate
<http://www.news.com/Eroding-E-rate/2009-1028_3-5236723.html> to certify
that they've put in place a "technology protection measure" on all of
their computers that "protects against access to a commercial
social-networking Web site or chat room, unless used for an educational
purpose with adult supervision."

The definition of "commercial social-networking Web site," however,
appears to be broad enough to sweep up blogging and online-journaling
services, as well as any site that allows users to create public
profiles, from Amazon.com to Slashdot to Yahoo.

<snip>

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