Have you seen the new entry on the Official Linden Blog which calls us to "keep things safe together". Let's see what "safe" and "together" means in the Linden's newspeak.

Big Brother Linden

Safety:

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.

Your world, your imagination! Yeah, right. But more interesting thing here is what they meant by doing it together:

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. Our team monitors such notification 24-hours a day, seven-days a week.

Not only that there is Linden's team for monitoring what you are doing 24/7, they want you to help them! They want you to peek through your neighbour's curtains, to see what they are doing and if you find that their sex animations are too violent for your taste, to report them. There is no reward mentioned but I suppose that you are free and welcome to feel righteous and virtuous in your own eyes. I am interested if this reporting system will be treated differently than the one we should use to report griefers and the one used for bugs. I mean, will it function at all. One more quote:

our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form.

Yes, sure, don't blame us, it was the community that wants us to turn second life to fascist world. That is to be expected. Throughout history, every fascist regime tried to justify itself by community.

fascism

I hate when I have to speak these things about Second Life and when I have to portray Philip as Big Brother. Second Life is a great achievement in many aspects, and Philip and other Lindens did some great things. But, just as same as I will raise my voice against any case of pornography that involves real life children, I will raise my voice against any attempt of oppressing any of resident's freedoms. Lately, those two things are going together. Every attempt to restrict a freedom of thoughts, imagination and expression in our world is justified by child abuse. But, somebody manipulates the facts here: child's right to grow and develop freely and freedom of thought are in the same family of rights. Those two goes together! You cannot restrict one without harming another!

Let's give Philip the last word:

We believed that freedom was fundamental to the environment and freedom is not something you can split hairs on. Second Life, like the Internet, is open to all, and what people want to do there is their own decision.

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