France Urged to Block Second Life Creator Access by Kids
French family rights activists want to block access to Second Life in France on grounds that it is exposing minors to shocking content. In a hearing Monday in the Paris Court of First Instance, Familles de France (FDF) said children can view sex, violence and other inappropriate material in Second Life. French Internet service providers (ISPs) and Second Life creator Linden Lab said they have no control over what avatars (virtual people) do onsite and should not be held accountable.
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FDF fears the virtual porn, casinos and other activities Second Life is spurring, its attorney, Antoine Cheron, reportedly told Judge Emmanuel Binoche. But a court report prepared at FDF’s request showing virtual sex acts was attacked by Linden Lab attorney Winston Maxwell, who argued that the only avatars misbehaving were those created by the official and FDF’s lawyer, Agence France Presse reported.
Linden maintains that it cannot control avatars because users command them, Maxwell told us. Like chat-room users, avatars, not platforms hosting them, should be held liable for inappropriate online activities, he said. Platforms’ responsibility is speedy removal of objectionable material once alerted, Maxwell said.
ISPs’ traditional position is that Internet filtering is not a proportionate way to fight illegal content, said Estelle De Marco, an attorney for French ISP group AFA. In this case, the content is legal, she said, since it is only virtual people acting wrongly. Under French law, anyone seeking to remove material from the Internet first must ask the ISP or hosting provider to take it down. Only if that request is refused can a court order action, she said. In this case, FDF approached neither Linden nor ISPs, leaving AFA members “amazed” to be sued over something that is not illegal, De Marco said.
France is the first European country to offer free parental filtering tools, De Marco said. ISPs are doing their best to keep children safe online, she added.
In May, Linden said it was testing an age and identity verification system in which residents of Second Life offer one-time proof of identity such as driver’s license or passport to allow future speedy verification. Second Life always has been restricted to over-18s, the blog posting said; when underage residents are reported, their accounts are closed until they provide proof of age. “Land owners” must flag their islands as adult if they have adult content, and are “morally and legally responsible” for that material and any behavior occurring on their land, Linden said.
Second Life is not a good place for criminals to post illegal content, because Linden keeps data on users and can provide them to the authorities, Maxwell said. “In that respect, Second Life is safer than the Internet,” he said.
If the court rules that Linden has not done enough to shield minors from pornographic or violent content, there will have to be a wider discussion of what technologies can do so, a source said. There is also the question of whether the special referee process is the proper venue for handling so complex an issue, the source said. A decision is expected July 2.