NBC News: “The Dark Side of the Web is Second Life”

1. evonne says:

   August 27, 2008 at 10:46 am

   There’s also a separate teen world where activities are mostly PG….teenagers don’t need to play the adult way to enjoy virtual space, and NBC sending up alarmist lies and sensational posts doesn’t help anyone.
2. Dave says:

   August 27, 2008 at 11:54 am

   >>>”I don’t know about you, but growing up in Brooklyn, most of those things happened on a near-daily basis.”<<<

   HA! Rimshot! Go Henny Youngman! More Stern humor. A later-in-life career awaits…
3. Joshua Meadows says:

   August 27, 2008 at 8:20 pm

   Suicide… in a video game? o_0

   Parents should be keeping their kids away from Second Life because it’s explicitly for users 18 and older. That’s clear all over the website and you have to supply a birthday to register. If you register an age under 18, you’re given the link to Teen Second Life. You can obviously put a fake one in and get access that way, but then you’re lying, and really it’s on parents to watch and monitor what their kids are doing– not punishing other companies by demanding they take care of kids that aren’t their own.

   It is not inherently adult either but the content is resident-generated, and like the internet in general, a lot of that takes the form of sexual content.

   YouPorn and xtube and so on are a lot easier if kids just want to get free adult material, and those don’t validate ages either.
4. Bambee Pelous says:

   August 27, 2008 at 8:39 pm

   This is ridiculous and completely uncalled for. Porn is no more accessible in Second Life than it is on Google. The issue is about people learning to properly parent their children.

   I grow ever tired of listening to whining, irresponsible people who refuse to take responsibility for their own children. If you spent some time keeping an eye on them, instead of tossing cell phones, computers and broadband at them without bothering to monitor use, then you deserve whatever you get.

   Virtual drugs? Are you kidding me. When was the last time someone overdosed on virtual LSD? And pot is not a drug. Get a grip.

   The medium is irrelevant. the entire issue is about proper parenting. Let’s grow up and start learning to take personal responsibility and quit passing the buck.
5. Bettina Tizzy says:

   August 27, 2008 at 9:17 pm

   I’m sorry to see that NBC’s NY affiliate is stooping so low and making a sordid story out of something they themselves will be using on a daily basis in the not-too-distant future, in much the same way they use this flat thing we call the Web.

   I can only guess that they are panicking now that the Olympics are over. NBC ranked fourth in ratings last season… and there won’t be any more Olympics that can save their sorry junk butts now.
6. Daman Tenk says:

   August 27, 2008 at 9:56 pm

   Wow. What a ‘wonderful’ piece of reporting by NBC. ROFLMAO.

   Sadly, everything I want to say has been said already.

   1) Like Joshua said: Parents should be keeping their kids away from Second Life because it’s explicitly for users 18 and older.

   So stop the parental censorship and “think of the kids” arguments. If you’re not 18 yet, then you don’t belong on Second Life and we don’t want your kind.

   2) Regarding the availability of porn in Second Life. It’s easier to find porn on the rest of the web. In Second Life you have to make an actual attempts, since it’s interactive. On Google, you just type in porn and it all basically comes flying towards you.
7. Jenna Normandy says:

   August 27, 2008 at 11:16 pm

   It’s sad and frankly insulting that NBC would create a badly, non-researched piece like this and call it “news”. Shame on you for producing such a hack piece of trash. Second Life has a Teen Grid to specifically prevent all of the issues you bring up in this “Zomg! the intenetz full of Pron” piece. Are you so lacking in real things to cover that you feel in necessary to air something that shows how little you care for actual details? Another salacious piece of fluff.

   This says far more about you than it does about Second Life.

   Get your facts straight.
8. Carmen Villadar says:

   August 28, 2008 at 4:42 am

   This is the kind of f*cked up propaganda that just makes me so sick. I am so tired of Mass Media Brainwashing.

   However true that it may be that you find these sick and inappropriate things in Second Life, I should remind those easily brainwashed folk out there that you find the very same things in Real Life.

   Suicide, drugs, porn and what not occur every second of the day all over the world and right under our noses.

   We entrust our children to teachers and people that are respectable in the community only to find that there are people out there that cross the boundaries of behavior. I am NOT singling out teachers but you find the dark side in any profession. It is NOT about a profession but about a sick mind.

   People need to know that as much as you can find the dark side inside Second LIfe you can also find many wonderful projects. I do not think that companies like IBM, CISCO, Harvard University, The CDC, and countless other educational institutions are THAT concerned.

   In the Real World, we live in and amongst the “dark side” and we all need to make choices.

   Second LIfe has a Second Life Teen Grid for people under the age of 18. Granted, there is a large gap of maturity and behavior when it comes to an 18 year old vs. a 35, 44 or 50 year old and I too am concerned for that. But to solely point out a negative aspect in its most extreme without giving an overall view and especially without also reminding people that it also exists in Real LIfe is just absurd.

   I am very disappointed that NBC would go out of their way and waste a program segment on such propaganda. They must be in cohoots with virtual worlds or even Linden Lab to stir interest and increase new accounts. If I just believed what I said, then I’m just as stupid as NBC. *which I am not*.

   FYI: Second Life is a platform that parallels Real Life. The only senses you cannot use are tactile and smell. Second Life is a virtual platform where Real Life aspects can be played out and that is where the danger arises because there are people out there that choose to go beyond normal Real LIfe boundaries and play them out in a virtual world.

   My advise to parents is, you really need to KNOW what your children are accessing and educate them. Technology has given us so much freedom but as parents, your roles are really challenged now. You would need to step up to the plate and educate and form good communication pathways with your children.

   I would also like to say that the songs, movies, TV ads and magazines all promote lifestyles that border on hedonism, materialism, pornography and so much more. And these things have been around for as long as man and media continues to control how we see things.

   If NBC feels that this reporting is responsible journalism then someone needs to send them off to a refresher course.
9. Morgaine says:

   August 28, 2008 at 9:17 am

   Too bad they dont write about all the positive things you can experience on the 18+ Second Life. There are several educational places to go to, where they teach languages and cultures.
   Oh dont forget about the experiences that someone can have if they are disabled and live out what they cant do through there avatar.
10. Bettina Tizzy says:

    August 28, 2008 at 10:22 am

    Dear Allen Stern:

    I looked for this video on WNBC-TV’s website but could not find it. Would you please post the link so that we may provide our commentary directly on their website? I would have appreciated this from the beginning, by the way.
11. Leon Westbrook says:

    August 28, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    The thing that offends me is that Second Life is so crudly made. I don’t get the appeal of it.
12. Shava Nerad/Shava Suntzu in SL says:

    August 28, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    I left them a sizeable comment on the general uses of Second Life (nonprofit, social, various) the teen grid, and a comparison to teen access to the wider web and the streets of NY

    I compared the reporting to going to a right-to-life meeting, and calling the report a balanced story on abortion. The reporter should be ashamed — they did no research at all.

    I requested they do a story as a correction.

    I hope personally that they apply some consequences to the reporter.

    To make a comment on their web site, go here:
    http://www.wnbc.com/contactus/index.html

    Shava Nerad
    shava suntzu in SL
13. Anonymous says:

    August 30, 2008 at 9:28 am

    Come back to reality - you Second Life freaks. Spend some time in the real world. NBC rocks! The truth hurts!
14. Joseph says:

    August 30, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Part 2 - continued

    I won’t even discuss the pedophile areas found in Second Life that was discovered by Skynews. It speaks for itself.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_jr6xjs90

    At one point you could even advertise for Ageplay (adult –child Avitar sex) sex with virtual children. Please post for me the explanation you have for a 12 year-old-curious kid who stumbles upon a person who defecates in another person’s mouth (which can be found in open free areas of SL)
    I guess if somebody did an article on the dangers of MySpace before poor Meghan Miers killed herself that would have been a waste of time or media propaganda? I love America and a solid business model but sitting on a cozy yacht while children are put at risk is not my cup of tea. I can rest my head on my pillow at night on the side of advocating for the health and safety of children.

    So to my Kool-aid drinking techies, when the first child dies due to some horrible exposure that they had in a virtual world, come back to this blog and re-read your educated comments.
15. Carmen Villadar says:

    August 30, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    Dear Joseph,

    Before a child dies because of *whatever* influence the *dark side* of the web (Second Life) had on their still developing brain let’s get really REAL here.

    Unfortunately, society has more than a handful of sick, demented, cruel people. Unfortunately too, these sick, demented, cruel people also happen to like being in virtual worlds. Hey, it’s a free country. I mean, it’s a free virtual world.

    Has it ever occurred to you that before someone logs into Second Life they have to sign up for an account, activate it, learn to manoeuvre around it etc … and off course kids nowadays are very computer literate. However, it’s far easier to simply GOOGLE any thing and a plethora of links gets shown.

    It’s not about what’s in virtual worlds that we have to worry about. It’s what’s out there in REAL LIFE. It is also what under aged children are accessing via the internet by simply searching and clicking on the links. It is also what children find in their homes left my their parents, older siblings etc … It is also what is shown on movies and television and ads and commercials and magazines that children form their view of what is right or wrong in the world.

    So before anyone blames anything degrading or any inappropriate thing found in a virtual world, we need to simply look around us in our neighborhoods and clean the sh*t up.

    I would also like to point out that parents have a very important responsibility, particularly NOW that the internet is like a doorway to hedonism.

    If children are accessing virtual worlds like Second Life where things that happen in Real Life also abound .. only difference is, it is virtual … where are the parents?
16. Shava Nerad/Shava Suntzu in SL says:

    August 30, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Joseph, please. Do you want to do a google search on “lolitas” and see what you get? Age play is about *playing* a child, and occurs between consenting adults. It’s not about having sex with real children, much as I hate to defend such things, but just for the folks who don’t get it.

    CHILDREN ARE NOT ALLOWED IN SECOND LIFE. A child in SL has to download the client, and fill out forms where he or she lies about his or her age. Any child willing to do that is probably *wanting* to be exposed to things that are inappropriate to children — and should have a parent looking out for him/her to make sure boundaries are not crossed.

    Those same boundaries can be crossed on the web — just by google searching, on youtube, in web forums, on AIM (or choose your chat client). That’s not about second life. There are kinky/pervy people in real life, and everywhere you look online — if you don’t *try* to look away.

    And that’s the point. If a kid is using this software, then that kid has no supervision. These activities, regardless of your visceral reaction, are not illegal in the US between consenting adults. Over and over again, the Supreme Court has supported the rights of online content that portray any legal act to be allowed online freely available, and that it is the obligation of the parents/libraries/schools to filter — and that adult sites need to ask if a user is under 18, and if they identify as being under 18, they are turned away.

    What is your problem? Why aren’t you going after the Disney Channel because they hire starlets who dress provocatively and have more press about their sex lives than about their academics? Why don’t you go after the fashion industry, who markets fashions and bratz dolls to little girls to encourage them to dress provocatively and roleplay seductively before they know what the body language means? Why aren’t you going after the parents who don’t monitor their kids’ computers?

    You’d have just about as much success. All of those things are legal here. If you want to live in a place where children are not exposed to sex, maybe you should send your daughter to Saudi Arabia or something, and wrap her in veils. Oh, no, wait. Then she might end up in a child marriage.

    Clue #1: The world is not safe for children. Teach your kids to deal with uncomfortable situations appropriately, and monitor their access to things of which you do not approve.

    No amount of cultural pressure or law will remove the inappropriate content from real life. No amount of cultural pressure or law will remove the inappropriate content from the net. No amount of cultural pressure of law will remove the inappropriate content from books, magazines, television, movies or advertisements.

    If you want to keep kids safe, then teach their parents to *talk* to them, gain their trust, regulate their online activity, and keep consistent discipline.

    Otherwise you are a whining victim in a world you feel someone aught to control for you. Don’t mourn, organize.

    And especially, don’t blame Second Life just because you don’t understand the net and public policy. It’s lame.
17. Nany Kayo says:

    September 1, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Parents worried about the dangers of Second Life should be keeping their children away from the internet, since there is less pornography, illegal activity, and violence in Second Life than there is on the internet in general.
18. JFreitas says:

    September 1, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    Just to let you know that i’m 39 and my daughter is 3,
    I do take my daughter to SL since she was 2
    I’m into virtualworlds since 1996 (activeworlds)
    Yes we play there
    Yes we enjoy SL
    Yes there are todlers places in SL
    Yes it’s safe

    Safer than opening IE or Firefox or any email and safer than leave home too.
    SL is so dangerous as any communication tool like email irc skype online videogame or messenger

    I absolutely HATE stupidity! Not ignorance.
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