Sky News targets sexual ageplay in Second Life again
Sky's Five News reporter Jason Farrell who broke the Wonderland Scandal last year, has been back in Second Life with a young girl avatar, and hooked up with an adult avatar for sex at another site created by the creators of the now-removed Wonderland.
Second Life users had previously complained about the Wonderland site in Second Life for some time, particularly those users who had avatars that were either juvenile in appearance or diminutive, but virtual world operator Linden Lab took no action against Wonderland, claiming there was "no firm evidence of wrongdoing" -- nevertheless, the Wonderland site disappeared, apparently due to Linden Lab intervention sometime after the whole mess hit the mainstream media.
Sky/Five News is organizing a debate at the Sky News center in Second Life on Wednesday 5 March at 1AM SLT (US Pacific time) "where a panel of experts including the head of Child Online Protection in Britain will debate whether real world rules should apply in virtual worlds."
Considering real world rules already apply in virtual worlds, it's either going to be a very short debate or a media puff event, we think. In our experience sexual ageplay seems to be no more (and somewhat less) prevalent in Second Life than in any other handle-based online venue, but right at the moment, any mainstream media reporting on Second Life, particularly of a scandalous nature, is good for sales.
The video report is two minutes, sixteen seconds long and you can view it here. It may make some viewers uncomfortable.
We have contacted Linden Lab for comment and for additional information.
Updates: Linden Lab responds, and a live report of the 'debate' (despite shoddy audio quality)
