Okay, we’re actually kind of glad to see this one – not for any creepy reason, but because there’s a certain grim satisfaction in seeing things play out to their, um, natural conclusions…
Set phasers on Fisk:
German prosecutors have launched an investigation to find anonymous participants of the online computer game Second Life, who are reportedly buying sex with other players posing as children, as well as offering child pornography for sale. Second Life is an internet-based virtual world with at least 6 million players, where you can choose your appearance, age, gender and colour.
[Because when you can make reality whatever you want it to be, pretty soon you’re going to end up with nightmare scenarios.]
Investigators in the city of Halle are acting on specific information about a German Second Life player, or avatar, who put child pornography images up for sale and paid for sex with underage players or players posing as minors. “We are trying to find out the identity of this person,’ Peter Vogt, chief prosecutor from the central office against child pornography told German television. ‘What is being offered is nothing short of child pornography.”
[Now, now, Herr Vogt. What’s being offered are virtual simulations of child pornography. I’m pretty sure you can buy all sorts of sex on Second Life, and nobody’s hollering that it’s nothing short of prostitution. And hentai-style animation has been depicting schoolgirls in sexual situations since forever – but it’s just pictures, don’t you know. If you’re going to protest, you may have to come up with something stronger, something more likely to get you branded a moralist – something closer to arguing that the state has an interest in the fantasy life of its citizens. And if you do that, things are going to get tricky.]
Nick Schader, a reporter with the investigative television programme, Report Mainz and a member of Second Life, said he had been “shocked to see” the virtual child pornography meetings to which he was invited for 500 Linden dollars – around £1.50. He said the same group of people subsequently put him in touch with traders in real child pornography.
[I’m shocked! Shocked to see that there are socially questionable sexual fantasies going on here in an anonymous world absolutely untethered by reality! But imagine that – bleed-over between virtual child porn and real child porn…]
Robin Harper, the deputy president of the San Francisco firm Linden Lab which runs Second Life, said: “We will find out who is behind this, and then inform the police.”
[I’m thinking this is only because of the “real-world” crossover.]
Whilst in the US “virtual” child pornography is not a crime, in Germany it is punishable by up to five years in prison.
[Those repressive Germans! But seriously, it’d be interesting to see an explication of the reasoning behind both policies.]
Those under 18 are banned from the adult area of Second Life and adults are banned from the “Teen Area”, but critics say in reality it is impossible to check the ages of participants. Some players dress up as child figures, but with no sexual motivation, purchasing “skins” to make them look like minors. But so-called “age play”, in which players request sex with other players who dress up as child avatars, has encouraged a growth in players posing as children in order to make money. Sex with animals is also increasingly popular on the site.
[Possibly the most perfect closing line imaginable. The casual throwaway, just tossed in there as an afterthought. “Oh, by the by..”]
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