Setting World Maturity Ratings

[Dot Matrix]

There seem to be two strands in this discussion.

One encompasses the ideas Ilan was tackling immediately above.

The other concerns those unhappy with labelling their own worlds as "Moderate" or (especially) as "Adult" when their aims are to keep everything at a "General" or safe-for-work level.

With regard to the latter point, it might be worth quoting from the official Maturity Ratings Guidelines for worlds:

If you create a world then you need to assign a Maturity Rating to it. Consider the content and activities in your world, and compare them to the types of Maturity Ratings described above (General, Moderate and Adult). Your world's Maturity Rating should be the same as the content with the highest Maturity Rating in it.

You are responsible for keeping your world in-line with its Maturity Rating. This means that if you allow users to create content into your world, and they create content that is too mature for the world, then you need to delete it. If users engage in behavior that is inappropriate for your world then you need to kick them out and possibly ban them. While we do not expect you to be in-world 24/7, if you are made aware of such problems then you should handle them in a prompt manner.

Note the last sentence:
While we do not expect you to be in-world 24/7, if you are made aware of such problems then you should handle them in a prompt manner.

In the meeting this was suggested as a possible way of tackling problems, and is something I personally could go along with, to retain the "General" label for worlds that genuinely merit it. Yet the re-labelling method was still put forward.

The guidelines are dated 26 January 2014. What has changed in the meantime to require this additional discussion?

[Ilan Tochner]

Nothing changed Dot. The issue was raised during the meeting and I reiterated that it was the world manager's responsibility to make sure the maturity rating he or she gives his worlds suits what those worlds actually contain. I also stated that by setting the world to Adult you minimize the amount of effort this will require as that basically states "dragons be here" (i.e. enter at your own risk).

The biggest takeway is that you can't turn a blind eye to how your world is used and you have to enforce the maturity rating you chose for that world. Take reasonable preemptive action to make sure that other people who visit your world follow the rules and respond promptly when you become aware of other people's abuses. You don't have to be inworld 24/7 monitoring people.

As long as everyone is following our TOS in the worlds you manage (which includes using the maturity ratings as we defined them) we don't care what you or they do inworld.

[Dot Matrix]

Thank you, Ilan. That sounds reasonable and appropriate. However, it isn't how it came across in the meeting.

Perhaps if the subject arises again (please, no!) would it be possible to just give the link to the documentation and move swiftly on to the next agenda item?

I don't think any of us wants to take part in this sort of discussion ever again at the community meetings.

[Constance Peregrine]

I too would rather not have to repeat this discussion again (it seems to come up once every few months when new users try to understand why we have maturity rating guidelines).

[Constance Peregrine]

before reading the responses to this-))

oopsee, you gonna git in truble discussing reality, ya knowz...this here is virtual reality, where reality has no place, morality is for losers, and ppl with principles get banned from grids...

ergh....I need to stick my head back in the sand..now..too-)))

<--sticks his head in the sand and hums quite loudly - "i can't hear you" = be damned if i will be turned into a policeman regulating others behavior - the whole forced morality issue is beyond stupid. It is not my duty, responsibility or interest to protect others children, I have had my own to protect and my goodness they grew up to be quite nice in spite of 9 million adult hits for the keyword "toy" that are sex sites. Oh, I should sue each and every one of these sex sites for exposing my 8 yr. old to unwanted images of raunch? Bahhhh, it is my responsibility to be sure my 8 yr old is not on the computer without adult supervision and a loving hand at the ready to move the mouse for him to the right direction. Parents are too lazy to keep a watchful eye out for their kids and decide what is appropriate for viewing however they are energetic enough to sue me or others?
Soo, i am a 60 year old man running around on skates using a 10 year old avi, I get kicked and banned from the sim for being too small. I turn around and there is a stud avi (cartoon btw), naked, asking each and every girl cartoon avi for sex (sex is when people touch and feel isn't it?) in local chat in a rather rude way. Turns out this stud is really a pimply faced 12 year old who lied about age when creating the account. He gets to stay in the sim.
This is how stupid the forced morality becomes trying to "protect" children. No one is protected from anything as it's just not possible to do. It is the sole responsibility of the parents of these children to monitor what they are seeing and doing on their private computer, not me or anyone else.
What is happening is fear of legal retribution hence all the disclaimers, painted underwear, don't show private parts (we can all look at our own anytime can't we) as they are so nasty and despicable. The end result is mass confusion trying to manage the unmanageable so I will stick my head in the sand and keep it there and pretend all this modesty and prudishness over cartoons is just a very bad dream.

[Constance Peregrine]

oh, ok....reading the rest.

I would say there are 3 strands, mine being the minority single one...lol

That one is the one about not even caring, setting it to adult, and moving on..................

yippeeee

[Freda Frostbite]

My worlds are rated "moderate" and are going to stay that way. I am willing to assume the risk that children will be emotionally scarred when they see a naked dancing bear HG into my land. I am not however willing to risk turning off potential visitors to my worlds by labeling it "adult." IMO, there is nothing in my worlds that could not be rated "general" but I am going with the "moderate" rating because there will be art and literature posted and performed on my lands and, with art, the line between porn and beauty is quite narrow, sometimes indiscernible. I am going with "moderate" because that says, basically, I did not set this world up with protecting the sensibilities of wusses as my main priority but I am also not gonna post pages from hustler or put up dance poles.

Until something major changes in the virtual world, that's my decision and I promise not to wag on about it at the community meeting.

Freda/Steph

[Kayaker Magic]

At the community meeting Ilan brought up this issue and the message that I was hearing from him was that as world managers we were responsible for what strangers did in our worlds. We had to be there to stop inappropriate behavior, and mark the worlds as Adult when we were not there to manage everyone. He seems less conservative here in the forums...

In an earlier message here he said:

To minimize your risk do not offer public sandboxes, limit building in your worlds to people you trust and direct other people to build in the Kitely Merchants Sandbox.

Now the issue of a sandbox is something new, and does give me pause. I like to be open and inclusive and I used to leave even my SIM in SL open as a sandbox. This never caused much trouble, I had to delete a few crashed motorboats and give a stern talking to the Russian kid who built a 3000 prim steam punk space station at 4000 meters. (He trimmed it down to 1000 prims). In Open Simulator, I expect even less trouble and would like to leave my land open for anyone to build on. But I see that doing so could open me up for someone to leave inappropriate material lying around. By marking my land as a sandbox I could be creating an attractive nuisance.

On the other hand, I want to have water-sports events in my world and I want people to be able to bring their own boats and rez them at a public dock. Rezzing a boat at the Kitely Merchants Sandbox will not allow them to participate in a race at my world! One solution would be to change the dock to public rez only during events. But I'd still want a way for people to bring boats in and practice when I am not around. I think a compromise will be to have a rez area for group members only. I could have an invitation-only group and control who can use the facilities, or an open enrollment group with a stern warning in the charter that members should behave. Then I'd at least have a short list of suspects (group members) if this is abused. The open enrollment dock could be far from the landing point so that any inappropriate prims left behind would not be the first thing new arrivals see.

And a silly thought: Is there a way to ban someone with a script? As open as I am, I have never felt the need to write a security orb. Until now. A script could monitor open chat, and if you use one of George Carlin's Seven Deadly Words, then POOF! You get teleported somewhere else!

[Freda Frostbite]

You can ban people on your land page inworld. No need for a script, but yes there are such scripts available.

As someone who has dealt with griefers in Sl, LOTS of griefers, my plan is the same as it has been there. Make it so no one can build on my land who is not a member the group associated with the land and make that group invitation only. I will also make sure my stuff is all locked and settings prevent others from moving my things, because it is no fun having someone disassemble a building while you are doing a poetry reading in it. Many of my objects will be copyable but people would have to take them elsewhere to rez.

Personally, I am not big on anticipating problems before they happen, but that is sort of Ilan's job.

Freda/Steph

[Ilan Tochner]

Giving building rights to a group is the recommended way to approach situations where you want to give other people rights to build in your world. As an aside, our next site update will include various fixes for long standing OpenSim bugs that prevented group owned land from being fully functional.