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Note: in the game mentioned below all participants are required to be 18 or older
Brave new world or virtual pedophile paradise? Second Life falls foul of law
Chris Johnston, The Age
WHEN is child pornography not child pornography? Can an "avatar" commit a crime? What is real, and what is not?
These are questions being asked amid an emerging under-age sex case in online computer game Second Life.
Second Life is an internet-based virtual world with 6 million players worldwide — including about 5000 in Australia — in which players custom build a representation of themselves (an "avatar") by choosing looks, age, gender and colour. Second Life players can earn real money by buying land, earning rent and selling goods. Mostly it is good, clean fun. But like real life, sex is popular.
Now German prosecutors are trying to find players who reportedly bought virtual sex with other players, who were posing as children. A pornography investigation has ensued.
In Germany, "virtual" child pornography is illegal and punishable by up to five years in jail. In the US it is not a crime. In Australia it is somewhere between the two and is largely untested.
"This is a constant grey zone," said Monash University new media lecturer Brett Hitchins. Law was dictated by the country or the state but the internet was neither and there was no internet-specific law. "Like everybody, I think child porn is abhorrent," Mr Hitchins said. "But is this a real thing going on, or a fantasy? And if it's a fantasy, could it encourage or permit something real?"
There are adult and "teen" areas in Second Life but they are impossible to monitor. Some players dress up as children with no sexual motivation. But so-called "age play", in which players can enact fantasies with child avatars, has encouraged a growth in players posing as children in order to make money.
In Victoria, under section 67A of the Victorian Crimes Act, a person who engages in virtual sex with a child avatar or who deals in virtual child porn could be successfully prosecuted, lawyers said.
The act does not mention the internet or virtual reality, but does include imagery in computer games that "describes or depicts a person who is, or appears to be, a minor engaging in sexual activity or depicted in an indecent sexual manner or context".
It is illegal to publish such images, and a game such as Second Life could be deemed to be a "publication", said Connor O'Brien, the chairman of the Law Institute of Victoria's criminal law section.
"If you have two adults and one is pretending to be a child and there is sexual activity then I would say guilty," he said. "It doesn't have to be a real child. I think being a virtual child would be enough."
Melbourne criminal lawyer Stella Stuthridge will later this year defend a Victorian man who she said faced similarly unusual child pornography charges. The man, from country Victoria, allegedly manipulated images — both cartoon and real — in a children's website. When his computer was repaired the evidence allegedly was found. Users of the website were mainly British children.
Ms Stuthridge said one of the difficulties of the case was its nebulous location.
"Where, exactly, did the alleged offence occur?" she said. "The law is in a constant battle to keep up with technological advances."
The Second Life case was revealed by a German investigative reporter.
San Francisco company Linden Lab, which runs the game, has said it will help police. With GUARDIAN
Copyright © 2007. The Age Company Ltd.
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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So yaoi and hentai are unlawful in certain places, too?
What about adults whose harmless enjoyment is to role play as "real children" in fantasy play in real life and who meet up to do this, physically, whether sex is involved or not?
What about the idiot UK duo "The Krankies"?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Victimless crime much? Is it going to be illegal for two adults to have sex when the woman is dressed up as a school girl? Because it's basically the same.
Child protection hysteria gone overboard, methinks. Both people in Second Life know that there are no children involved. Surely that is healthier than real children. Or are sexual fantasies about those below the age of consent going to be illegal soon, too? If so I'd think quite a few males would be going to jail. I'm sure many straight guys have some not-so-innocent thoughts when they look at 15 year old girls.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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The federal government tried to arrest and try a company for this. They were creating worlds with chidren using Poser. This company managed to get the case to the US Supreme Ct. The court rulled since they were not real children, no crime was committed and struck down that part of the internet porn law.
[Updated on: Thu, 10 May 2007 18:59]
If you stand for Freedom, but you wont stand for war, then you dont stand for anything worth fighting for.
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