Linden Lab Updates Its Terms of Service, with Changes to Child Avatar Rules in Second Life

I want to make it clear that, while I agree wholeheartedly with the changes Linden Lab have made, which are discussed in this editorial, I disagree with HOW these changes are being implemented by Linden Lab, and particularly with the June 30th, 2024 deadline, which I feel does NOT give businesses and individuals enough time to prepare for the impact of these changes.

I also feel that Linden Lab has failed to provide sufficient details to affected content creators and users, many of whom are now scrambling to accommodate the May 2nd changes to the Second Life Terms of Service within less than two months. This could have been handled better.

Also, please note that we are talking about child avatars, not real-life children. You have to be 18 years of age or older to access all areas of Second Life (if you are 16 or 17, you can create an account, but you are restricted to regions rated General). For those who are 13 to 15 years old, they can only access Second Life through an affiliated organization (e.g. a school), and will be restricted to the private estate of that organization. Only avatars approved by that organization will be able to enter these private estates. For further information, please see the Linden Lab official policy on Teens in Second Life.

Therefore, we are not talking about actual children (i.e. those younger than 13) in SL, and given the restrictions, there are few teenagers (aged 13 to 17) in Second Life; we are talking here today about adults (people aged 18 or older), who choose to be a child or teenage avatar in SL. Read on for a discussion of why some people might choose to do this.

UPDATE May 5th, 2024: I am following the rapidly-growing discussion thread about the May 2nd, 2024 Terms of Service changes on the Second Life Community Forums, and choosing to quote some people who have made insightful contribtions to that discussion here, so I do apologize in advance for the length of this blogpost!

UPDATE May 6th, 2024: Please note that the community forum moderators, in trying to wrangle this very long thread, have messed things up, so that any links in this blogpost to particular comments will likely fail! I have updated the link in this blue box, but I do not have time to go through and fix all the links to that thread in this blog post.

This blogpost is an update of sorts to the one I made exactly two months ago, on March 4th, 2024, about the allegations made by an anonymous writer who posted a detailed article on Medium, outlining serious allegations against a number of people, including employees of Linden Lab, the company that makes Second Life.

The allegations revolve around a very specific crime called sexualized ageplay (virtual pedophilia), which has been a serious, bannable offence in Second Life for well over a decade and a half. In 2018 on this blog, as part of list of controversies and scandals during the long history of Second Life, I wrote about previous ageplay-related scandals in SL and how Linden Lab responded in 2007:

The virtual pedophilia uncovered by two different news reporters in Second Life was a public relations disaster of the highest order for Linden Lab…

About the same time (2007), a German TV news program uncovered more shocking behaviour…

Linden Lab responded to the crisis by creating an official Ageplay Policy, where people involved in ageplay and virtual pedophilia activities were banned from the platform.

On May 2nd, 2024, Brad Oberwager, the new owner of Linden Lab since 2020, made an offical blog post, titled Enhancing Our World Together: Important Updates for the Second Life Community. You should click that last link to read the statement in full, but if you don’t, here’s the salient part that relates to the allegations made in the anonymous Medium report which, as I have said, involved sexualized ageplay using child avatars:

Our priority has always been to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all while preserving the freedom of expression that makes our virtual world so special. That’s why we’re working to further enhance the safety and protection of the Second Life platform. These efforts include strengthening some of our community and employee policies as well as evaluating improvements to our age verification process. 

One area of ongoing scrutiny both internally and externally concerns child-presenting avatars. We recognize and want to acknowledge the vibrant community of residents who enjoy roleplaying as such, and we also feel that it is crucial to reinforce our stance that sexualized ageplay is strictly prohibited. Today, we are updating our Child Avatar Policy to ensure a clear separation and to safeguard all community members. We know that this update has the potential to cause confusion or concern in our community, so we’ve prepared an FAQ which we will continue to update as questions come up.

We recently posted our initial response to community concerns about alleged violations of company and community policies by employees, contractors, and community members. Since that time, we have conducted multiple thorough investigations to look closely at whether there were specific infractions or problematic interactions that needed us to take action. 

The investigation determined that all Lindens and contractors have stayed in compliance with our own community guidelines, as well as unwritten, ethical guidelines. I do not make this statement lightly, and I know there will be plenty of discussion. What I can say is that there is no incentive, monetary or otherwise, for me to mislead the community. At some point, the community has to trust that we, the Lindens, do well when the community thrives. We may make mistakes along the way, and we know that our community will engage with us when we do. Second Life is an enormous virtual world and we have to walk a very fine line between policing and preserving freedoms while also protecting the future growth and health of Second Life as a platform that respects diversity and creative expression among our community.

The findings did highlight opportunities for improvement. As a result, we are making updates to our internal policies to raise the standard for how Linden employees should respectfully engage with community members. This addresses multiple forms of engagement including how we present ourselves, how we interact with the community (even in moments of conflict), and how we minimize the perception of conflict of interest and favoritism in our interactions. Additionally, there have been specific actions we have initiated or finalized:

• Updated our Child Avatar Policy 
• Updated our internal Policies and Procedures
• Implemented personnel changes
• Initiated management improvement programs
• Committed to Community Roundtables (see below)
• Committed to increased transparency and accountability

All weekend, I have been following a fast-growing thread on the official Second Life community forums, titled So what changed in the Terms of Service? (now at 105 pages and still showing no sign of slowing down or stopping). Trying to keep up with everybody’s opinions is like trying to drink from a firehose at full blast. I went to sleep last night at page 52, and when I lay down on the sofa and opened up the thread on my trusty iPad, it had grown to 102—and added another 3 pages as I was writing this blogpost!!!

I’m going to make an attempt to distill the discussion here, but keep in mind that this is still a fluid situation, some people have very strong opinions about how Linden Lab is going about this change (myself included), and I suspect that I am going to have to make quite a few updates to this blogpost!

I commented on that thread:

I think the one change that is probably going to cause the biggest uproar among content creators and child role players is the new rule that child (or child-like) avatars now must have a baked-on modesty layer on their body’s skin.

Store owners have two months to make changes. However, I don’t see ToddleeDoo (for example) bothering to update any older versions of their body skins, and there are probably going to be a lot of SL users that remain ignorant of these changes, and still using older versions of child bodies and skins that (according to the FAQ, I just checked) will be in violation of the policy. 

I have an alt with a ToddleeDoo Kid head and body, which I pull out maybe once or twice a year (I used to use it more often, and in fact I had made arrangements to leave that avatar to someone else in my will).

The last time I signed her in was to pick up the free LeLutka  Noel head last December. I’m glad I had the foresight to do that, because I’ve decided today that, rather than try and update the skin on that ToddleeDoo body (which is many years old and probably no longer even supported by the store), I’m just gonna ditch the child avatar completely, and make her an adult.  In fact, I just did that before signing on to read this thread! No more child avatars for me.

Fun fact: there were running battles for YEARS between content creators and management over at Sansar because ALL skins (even adult ones) had to have baked-on modesty panels! Of course, nobody really cares anymore, because Sansar is limping along on life support, but I wanted to remind everybody that we here in SL should not be complacent about our nudity (and sexual) freedoms! All it would take is a single change of ownership, and all that could change. 

I suspect that many people who have little-used child and teen avatars are going to decide to do the same.  It’s simply not worth the risk of having that account banned if you are AR-ed for not meeting these new body and skin requirements.

i want to make it clear that I agree wholeheartedly with banning child avatars from Adult regions and from places like nude beaches, as well as all the other changes announced today. I’m also somewhat in favour of the baked-on modesty panel idea for child bodies and skins, but it’s going to be a hard sell in certain quarters, I fear.

So I have decided to ditch my child avatar completely, rather than try to deal with the hassle of trying to upgrade her before June 30th, 2024, especially since I only log her in once or twice a year. I’ve redone her as an adult woman.

This is what April Mayflower looked like before May 2nd, 2024:

And this is what she looks like now, after May 2nd, 2024:

I replaced her ToddleeDoo head and body with the LeLutka Noel head and the Senra Jamie body respectively, both of which were free (Noel was a free gift last December, in an event I blogged about here). I now have a Senra Jamie avatar who I can use when I need to model any free apparel or footwear I pick up as a freebie, so for me, it’s not a total loss.

Among the new May 2nd, 2024 rules for child avatars (as outlined in the official Linden Lab policy titled Clarification of policy disallowing ageplay), is that child avatars must never be nude, and they are enforcing this by forcing child/teen avatar body and skin makers to have a modesty panel: “Child avatar content creators are required to add a modesty layer which is baked into child avatar skins or bodies, is not transparent, does not match the skin tone, and may not be removed.”

Furthermore, according to the newly-created Child Avatar FAQ:

Q: I already have a child avatar that does not have a built in modesty layer.  Can I still use that since I purchased it already?

A:  No. Going forward, child avatars will be prohibited from being fully nude.

In other words, my child avatar will be prohibited after June 30th (or more specifically, would be liable to be the subject of an Abuse Report which could lead to me having my 16-year account banned), not because she is nude (something she never was), but that she could potentially be made nude.

UPDATE 10:34 p.m.: Scylla Rhiadra has compiled an excellent summary of the changes, and posted to the every-growing thread on the SL community forums, which I reproduce here:

So, to summarize a bit.

Are Child Avatars of any age still permitted? Yes. This remains unchanged.

Can Child Avatars continue to interact with those representing Adults? Yes. This remains unchanged.

Are there any new restrictions on the kind of RP that Child Avatars can engage in? No, although any RP must now be in Moderate- or General-rated regions. “Family” RP, for instance, is still permitted. This remains unchanged.

Are there new restrictions on where Child Avatars can be? Yes. Adult-rated areas are characterized primarily by the fact that public sexuality and/or violence is permitted within them; because Child Avatars are not (and have not, for some time) been permitted near public sexuality, they are now restricted from entering Adult areas. This represents a change to old policies.

Are there new restrictions on what Child Avatars can wear? Yes. Child avatars are no longer allowed to be nude, and must, beginning in July, wear skins with baked-in “modesty layers.” They must also not wear clothing or attachments that represent or that accentuate the genital areas. This represents a change to old policies.

Are Child Avatars allowed to be present around nudity? No. This represents a change to old policies.

Have the penalties for which Child Avatars are liable should they contravene these rules changed? No. This remains unchanged, although there are a few new categories for which penalties can be assessed (see Adult regions, and nudity, above.)

Has the way in which abuse reports lodged against Child Avatars are judged by LL changed? No. This remains unchanged.

Has the appeal process for ARs changed? No. This remains unchanged.

Has there been any change in ability of landowners to restrict the access of Child Avatars to their land changed? No. This remains unchanged.

Most of this remains unchanged. Again, this all seems to me very doable, surely, although some clarifications from LL (particularly with regard to the modesty layer) would be appreciated.

---

It turns out that other virtual worlds, such as IMVU, have very clear and simple guidelines about what is and is not appropriate, and even provides pictures. SL? Not so much.

For example, below are IMVU’s images. Why the hell didn’t Linden Lab create something like this to share with content creators, preferably before changing anything?!?? This lack of details and specifics, when Linden Lab should have been on-the-ball and prepared before pulling the trigger on the Terms of Service changes on May 2nd, 2024, is causing no small degree of upset and confusion among content creators and those who own and use child avatars (the overwhelming majority of whom have absolutely nothing to do with sexual ageplay).

One person reported that the ToddleDoo creator, like so many child and teen avatar body and skin creators, was scrambling to meet these new requirements, without much guidance from Linden Lab:

Part of the issue is the rules for what the modesty layer should look like haven’t been given out. The creator at TD was expressing this yesterday in their Discord. She received no notice from LL [found out through the announcement, I believe.] She was working on trying to implement a fix that wouldn’t break content [or at least as little as possible], and was ready to start, but has been given no guideline on what to cover. So if even the creators don’t know what this layer should look like, where are we?

Upon hearing this news, I became angry, and I responded on the forum thread:

What it means is that few child/teen body and skin creators are going to be able to provide solutions for the customers in time to meet the June 30th deadline.  

This whole business has started to feel like an almost panicky, knee-jerk response from Linden Lab, who should have provided some more guidance to content creators BEFORE announcing these changes.

I’m actually feeling really cranky at the moment.  So LL isn’t going to budge on the modesty panel requirement, and I’m not going to budge on upgrading my outdated ToodleeDoo avatar. Therefore, I’m giving up on having any child avatars. I am DONE. I just feel sorry for the content creators and child/teen role players negatively impacted by this, who have little to no time to prepare. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if some creators follow the lead of Zooby, and exit the child avatar market altogether.

Zooby did have a line of baby and child avatars, which they apparently decided to stop selling very recently—a decision made, some people say, in the wake of the allegations made in the anonymous Medium article I mentioned earlier. (Hell, if I were them, I would have done the same thing. Linden Lab’s somewhat hamfisted, knee-jerk approach to these allegations is not inspiring confidence among content creators at the moment.) They still sell a line of animesh baby attachments, and some speculate that these, too, might be required to have modesty panels, even though they are not avatars per se, but scripted objects.

In this tangential discussion, there was a brief moment of hilarity when I shared that I had once, as a joke, once made an Octomom version of Vanity Fair, using some free prim babies I had picked up from a store which had mistakenly listed them for sale for L$0. Of course, somebody immediately asked to see Vanity as Octomom, so I dug around to find a picture to share:

We all laughed, but the fact remains: Linden Lab may decide to extend its rules to apply not only to child/teen avatars, but any object that looks like a child or teen, which could potentially be used (or rather, abused) for ageplay. These prim babies, which still linger in Vanity’s overstuffed inventory, might be headed for the pixel bin!

I mean, it’s no skin off my nose, but for the myriad businesses which cater to an adult audience roleplaying as children or teenagers in Second Life, these changes (with the associated lack of clarity over details), mean that this is not utterly outside of the realm of possibility.

My opinion is that Linden Lab is eventually going to have to make a choice: keep adult and sexual content and ditch child/teen avatars, or keep child/teen avatars, and ditch adult content.

Anyway, stay tuned! As I said, I wxpecct I will be making many updates to this blog post as the situation continues to evolve (and that 100-plus page thread on the SL Community Forums continues to grow).

---

UPDATE 8:39 p.m.: Perhaps nothing illustrates just how strongly people feel about this topic is than these two completely different responses to the same comment, posted within minutes of each other on the SL Community Forums yesterday.

Luna Bliss said:

I don’t think I’d call it a “punishment”, but if I was forced to change my avatar in major ways because there was sexual abuse in the world, I’d feel like there was something kinda wrong with me…like my way of being or self was at fault somehow. It’s not logical, I know, but I can see why child avatars are feeling they’re not quite okay now, and being targeted unfairly to be the solution for something they never caused.

I think you’re the only one who has actually managed to put into words how I am feeling. In principle the modesty layer is a good thing as it will keep us safe, but the fact we need it makes me feel sort of dirty, like I should be ashamed, or I’ve done something wrong, even though logically I know I haven’t. I won’t go into details, but like many kid avis I did not have the best childhood growing up and so being a kid avi in SL and having a loving family has been a way to heal.

—brodiac90

LittleMe Jewel responded:

I totally get it. [In my opinion], it is the same as when women in [real life] are told to dress a certain way if they don’t want to be raped. A rapist is the one that is wrong, not the ones that might be raped. Similarly, the pedophile is the one in the wrong, not the object of their attention.

But one user was having none of it:

What is wrong with barring people who run child avatars from adult rated sims and content? What is wrong with demanding that people who run child avatars take care that they do not display a sexualised child? What is wrong with demanding that they keep their profile clean of links to adult content and sites? What is wrong with demanding that people running child avatars stay away from adult activities and content?

For whom is the mandatory modesty layer a punishment? Certainly only for those who prefer to have none and these are the ones with an obvious interest in the sexualised display of a child, to themselves and to others.

—Vivienne Schell

And Luna Bliss (who started all this with her comment) responded:

I never claimed there was anything wrong with any of these remedies you cite. I only described the way in which some of the changes and extreme focus on these matters are affecting how some child avatars feel. Knowledge and feelings sometimes differ, you know, and can even exist at the same time under this difference. Scroll up to see what Brodiac90 said.

People who don’t use Second Life might not be aware that SL has strict age requirements. You have to be 18 years of age or older to access all areas of Second Life (if you are 16 or 17, you can create an account, but you are restricted to regions rated General). Therefore, we are not talking about actual children in SL; we are talking about adults (people aged 18 or older), who choose to be a child or teenage avatar in SL. Some even seek out other adults who roleplay as their parents. And the reason why some adults would choose this are varied. Some people are attracted to the idea of being a child again, a sort of do-over. I can see how someone who had a less-than-stellar childhood would be attracted to that prospect.

However, the current discussion and debate makes child avatars feel like they are being targeted, and the fact that they cannot even express how sad they feel about the necessity of these changes without being reprimanded and even attacked saddens me greatly.

Perhaps now you will understand why I no longer feel comfortable as a child avatar in Second Life; it’s just not fun anymore. It’s all become so HEAVY lately. Second Life has existed for so long because it was an escape from messy, painful, heartbreaking reality. People become children again in SL, sometimes to heal wounds from their own real-life childhoods, but even that innocent quest is getting tarnished in the current hothouse of rancourous, acrimonious, divisive debate.

I have a sinking feeling the next two months are going to be a very bumpy road for Second Life, and Linden Lab. And I wish I could say that I have 100% confidence that Linden Lab is going to do the right thing here, when they are no doubt feeling the pressure to do something (or, perhaps, to be seen to be doing something).

Wow, I am feeling bitter, jaded, and cynical tonight. Ironically, this is exactly when I would most want to log into Second Life to be a carefree little girl, who skips along wherever she goes, and sometimes chooses to fly up, up, and away, clutching a batch of big, brightly-coloured helium balloons…just to get away from it all for a few moments.

…and frankly, it kinda pisses me off that I’m probably not going to be able to do that anymore (or at least, not be able to do it without jumping through a whole lot of hoops). I still think it’s best to give up on the whole virtual childhood thing, at least for me. Like I said, it’s just not fun anymore.

---

UPDATE Sunday, May 5th, 2024, 7:26 a.m.: I just woke up, brewed a pot of coffee, and sat down to the So what changed in the Terms of Service? thread on the Second Life Community forums—only to discover that it was now 120 pages long! I got as far as page 76 before I went to bed last night, so it looks like I have a busy day ahead of me. Better pour myself a strong cup of black coffee and dive back in!

Qie Niangao raises some good points in their post on the ever-growing thread, about the existing Abuse Report (AR) process in SL:

I’m a bit worried about the flood of ARs, not so much that it will affect many innocent child avatars (I doubt it will) but because the Governance budget is going to eat into Development, advertising, etc., just when those could otherwise benefit the platform’s future.

It might help if, in addition to explaining the whole elaborate AR appeals process (useful) they also issued a reminder that falsified ARs have consequences for the reporting account. Not to discourage people from reporting true violations they found personally offensive, but ARs as instruments of inter-resident conflict really can’t be tolerated.

(I’ve given up on making the argument many pages ago, but I still feel the Lab has unrealistic expectations about the effect of whitewashing the naughty bits of child avatar skins. It may have some benefit as a communications device, “Don’t touch the smooth parts or Sister Agnes will take a ruler to your evil little fingers”, but it’s not going to make Governance’s job all that much easier.)

By the way, there’s already been speculation that griefers will, yes, abuse the Second Life Abuse Reporting (AR) system (which has been in place for many, many years) to mass-report child avatars just because they hate child avatars. Some people have posted stories of this happening in the past. Of course, all this does is tie up resources which could be better used elsewhere, as Qie Niangao states.

UPDATE Sunday, May 5th, 2024, 8:19 a.m.: Honey Puddles has some suggestions to help lessen the confusion about Linden Lab’s terminology:

There seems to be a lot of kibitzing going on over the specific words and phrases being used in the rules, and people are poring over it for any scrap of loopholes. Some issues that need to be specifically addressed (in direct words) in the FAQ are…

Change uses of the word “Layer” to “Panel” or “Patch”.. This is causing confusion as to whether the use of system clothing ‘layers’ are an acceptable alternative to having a modesty patch on the skin…

Similarly, change usage of the phrase “Baked onto” if you do not mean to imply that Bakes-On-Mesh Layers are an acceptable solution. Perhaps a better phrase is “Rendered or painted directly on the skin’s textures”, if that’s what you mean to imply…

Are grey crotch triangles and/or nipple-cover pastie style circles acceptable, or must this be an apparent clothing item? Do ‘girl presenting avatars’ with fully flat chests have to have bras? Is there an apparent age point where one is and isn’t required?  Is a C-string style cover acceptable, or do child avatars need actual panties painted on? Are thongish panties or high-cut briefs compliant, or does everyone need knee-length boxers?

What specifically must be covered? It’s an uncomfortable question to ask and answer particularly from the corporate world of worries of sexual harassment, sensitivity, etc, but there must be no ambiguity here, for child avs and asset creators. Where is the line here?

…

Some folks seem to be getting the idea that this rule only applies to content creators, and that child avatar users themselves have no direct compliance requirements. I personally think it’s pretty clear, but I have 18+ years of experience in reading LL’s announcements. Child avatars can’t be forced to personally modify their skins, because child avatars largely don’t make their own skins, they buy them. The creators need to update their assets, the child avatars need to use compliant assets by June 30. This needs some clarification.

Personally, I felt that last part was very clear: adults roleplaying as child/teen avatars must have bodies and skins compliant with the new ToS by June 30th, 2024 (it’s even mentioned in the Child Avatar FAQs, which I have quoted earlier).

UPDATE Sunday, May 5th, 2024, 9:13 a.m.: Theresa Ravenheart wrote about the detailed questions she submitted to the Second Life Community Roundtable, which will be taking place on May 20th, 2024 (more information here on that event). The recent changes to the Terms of Service will no doubt be a topic for discussion!

I submitted this to the Community Roundtable form on May 20th. If your avatar(s) fit into these categories: cartoons, kemono bodies, anime heads, adults in DD/lg or MD/lg dynamics, adults who enjoy dressing kawaii or youthful, individuals who use pet names like Daddy, Mommy, or babygirl, feral humanoids and animals, MLP, or any other adult avatar that could be questioned as “child-like”, I recommend that you also submit inquiries to the form regarding how this might affect you, so we can receive clear answers.

While I personally do not use child/teen avatars or associate with them, I do empathize with how this situation may impact them, potentially resulting in the loss of their identities and a significant portion of their attire and appearance.

Form for questions: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXUzASY9JoiU5tMraxP9LPvmllUS2TlW3jAXIAl49w2VSV2A/viewform

My question to LL:
My inquiry pertains to the recent updates on policies regarding Child Avatar and ageplay. How will this affect consenting adults who utilize adult avatars but affectionately refer to each other using terms such as Papi, Mami, Daddy, Mommy, babygirl, or babyboy, either due to their BDSM dynamic or simply as endearing pet names? It seems that even though they are adults and behave accordingly, there might be a concern of them being identified as child-like based on subjective criteria. As stated in the new terms “In some cases there may be an element of subjectivity as to whether an avatar (or other image) appears to be a minor. Objective factors which will be used to decide include whether an avatar has childlike facial features, is child-sized, has clothing or accessories generally associated with children, and whether, based on the circumstances, an avatar is speaking or acting like a child (“My Mommy says…”)“.

• Given that we present ourselves as adults, utilizing adult avatars with adult features and behaviors, will there be repercussions for using common pet names?
• Additionally, what about adults who incorporate items like pacifiers or diapers into their avatar aesthetics for various personal reasons—would this be considered inappropriate due to its association with child-like attributes?
• Childlike can be a lot of things, holding a teddy bear, wearing roller-skates, dressing kawaii and girly, having your hair in pigtails, and on an on. Defining “childlike” in the context of adult avatars would greatly assist in understanding where boundaries lie.
• Furthermore, how will these policies impact adult users who use feral avatars that may possess genitalia?
  • Determining the age of a feral animal avatar, such as a dog, horse, cat, or dragon, presents its own challenges.
• Consider the communities centered around My Little Pony (MLP) adult avatars. While MLP may be perceived as childlike, what about adults who utilize these avatars in adult-oriented settings, comporting themselves as adults? They inhabit cartoon avatars but exhibit adult behaviors. 
• The same applies to communities revolving around Sonic Mobian, Kemono, Anime, and other adult cartoon avatars.

Establishing clear guidelines is essential to prevent misunderstandings. Subjectivity in judgments risks account penalties, hence the necessity for precise and measurable regulations.

Additionally, it would be beneficial for Linden Lab to adopt clear guidelines, akin to those of IMVU, regarding modesty coverage for child and teen avatars. These rules should be unambiguous and easily applicable to prevent any ambiguities: https://create.imvu.com/articles/classic/understanding-minimum-coverage-guidelines/#:~:text=To accurately test the coverage,not sheer or transparent

UPDATE Sunday, May 5th, 2024, 10:00 a.m.: Kathlen Onyx said something which I 100% agree with:

I honestly think that this thread would die down if LL simply showed us a picture of what the modesty panel will/should look like. They have yet to do so letting residents make up in their head how bad it will be. Not a responsible way to rollout a major change, if you ask me.

I am now on page 99 of this thread, with another 25 pages to go.

UPDATE May 6th, 2024: Well, I am glad to report that the flurry of activity over the weekend has died down a bit. I’m still monitoring the thread (it’s now at 166 pages and still growing, albeit more slowly). Scylla Rhiadra said:

The new rules also protect child avis. And empower them.

And I do think that this is a point that sometimes is getting lost in the kerfuffle over the May 2nd Terms of Service update. These measures were updated in order to protect those people who choose to represent as children or teenagers in Second Life, where they are sometimes the target of creepy people. It also more clearly spells out what is considered unacceptable behaviour, which can be reported using SL’s Abuse Report feature, for action to be taken by Linden Lab. So it also empowers child avatars.

What I have found upsetting and troubling is just how vindicative some people have been in the comments section in this particular thread. On Saturday evening I posted:

Child avatars can’t even express their sadness about these changes (while agreeing with them) without getting attacked.

Everything has become a hothouse of rancorous, acrimonious, divisive debate, with little thought, feeling, or empathy for the content creators and child/teen role players who are most directly impacted by these changes. Express sorrow and you’re instantly branded a pedophile apologist. No wonder Coffee and Madi know of people who are packing up and leaving. 

I predict a very rocky road ahead for SL and LL over the next couple of months.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that one of the many avid commenters on this thread, a child avatar named Madi Melodious, has made a handy panic button, which is a scripted HUD attachment which you can get for free from the SL Marketplace here. She describes it as:

A simple hud that monitors the maturity rating of a sim and compares it to the rating that you have it set for. If you accidentally teleport or enter a sim whos rating exceeds the huds setting, it will automatically teleport your avatar to s safe zone of your choice. The hud also monitors the sims rating you are in and will take you to safety if the rating changes while you are there.

So, if you are a child or teen avatar, you might want to pick up Madi’s Panic Button and wear it, in case you accidentally find yourself in a SL region rated Adult (where child avatars are now banned). The default settings for the HUD are as follows: the Sim Rating is set to Moderate, the Teleportion mode is Auto, and the default Safe Zone is the WelcomeHub. All these settings can be changed by the menu, which you can obtain by pressing on the HUD for two seconds or longer.

I have bought and tested this device, and it works flawlessly. Thanks, Madi!

---

Also, Tommy Linden (in charge of the Governance team at Linden Lab) posted this message to the thread about an hour ago:

Good morning!

You all posted quite a bit over the weekend! I just wanted to let you know that we are still working on more updates to the FAQ that will be added over the next couple of days. One of the things that we will be adding is an image to help provide clarity on the modesty layer. 

I am very happy to hear that Linden Lab is listening to us, and that they will supply an image to help guide content creators who need to add a modesty layer to their bodies and/or skins.

UPDATE May 8th, 2024: Tommy Linden (in charge of the Governance team at Linden Lab) finally closed the discussion thread at 251 pages, with the following final comment:

I come with some updates, and what will be the final comment on this thread before I close it out. I want you all to know that I personally have read every single post in this thread, and I appreciate that for the most part, everyone tried to keep it on topic, and as a productive conversation. I know many other Lindens have been doing their best to follow along on this thread as much as possible as well. I also want to give a thanks to Dyna and Quartz for helping to keep this thread on track and civil.

We have updated the FAQ, it now contains images that demonstrate what we expect the modesty layers to look like. In addition, at tomorrows Governance Office Hours we will have models there displaying the modesty layers. We hope this provides some additional clarification regarding our expectations around what the modesty layer should look like. We have also added questions to the FAQ that we felt would be beneficial after reading through everyones feedback both on the forums, and in tickets… If we determine that more things are needed to be added to the FAQ, we will absoluately do so.

If you feel like you have more feedback to provide, you can always submit a support ticket, or if its a feature request, you can do so via our feedback portal https://feedback.secondlife.com/.

As always, for easy reference, here is the link to the FAQ: https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000173097-child-avatar-faq

UPDATE May 8th, 2024: There’s been another official post from Linden Lab, in response, which reads as follows:

Last week, we announced an update to our child avatar policy in Second Life, and since then, we’ve received numerous questions and requests for further details. We understand the importance of these updates to our community and encourage everyone to keep consulting the continuously updated Child Avatar FAQ for answers to your queries.

Additionally, we invite all community members to join the Governance User Group on Thursday, May 9th, 2024, at 2pm PT. This meeting will provide further insight into these updates, including a presentation of what the new modesty layer could look like, ensuring clarity and compliance across our virtual world.

The decision to update the child avatar policy was not made lightly. It involved weeks of meticulous discussion and coordination across various departments at Linden Lab, with the Governance team at the forefront. Our goal was to balance the diverse needs and expressions of our community with the necessity to maintain a safe and respectful environment for all users. This delicate balance reflects our commitment to providing freedom of expression while ensuring that Second Life remains a welcoming space for everyone.

By taking these thoughtful steps, we are committed to enhancing our community’s experience, ensuring that Second Life continues to be a platform where creativity and expression can flourish within a framework that respects and protects every resident.

Unfortunately, I am at home sick, with a pinched nerve in my 60-year-old neck, and I was asleep in bed much of the day, so I missed today’s Governance User Group meeting. However, I have no idea that Inara Pey or another SL blogger will report on that meeting, so when I hear about it, I will let you all know! Here’s a video of today’s event:

One interesting quote from the Governance meeting today, which someone shared on the forums, was from Keira Linden, who said:

The other concern in regards to the modesty layer is how it will impact existing content. To be clear, we are requiring skin sellers to have the areas shown in the images use a modesty layer on the skin files. However, for existing content, bake layers and alphas can be a viable temporary solution but we would STRONGLY encourage everyone to move to a more permanent solution.

So, it sounds as though LL is willing to entertain the idea of using Bakes on Mesh and/or alphas as an interim measure, until modesty panels can be implemented by body and skin makers. This is good news for me! Maybe I don’t have to ditch my ToddleeDoo child avatar after all, since she was BoM underwear.