No, This Is Not What Nietzsche Meant When He Said ‘In Every Real Man a Child Is Hidden That Wants to Play’
by John Paczkowski
Posted on May 10, 2007 at 11:27 AM PT
One thing to remember if you’re going spend any time at all in an Internet-based virtual world like Second Life is that it’s important to get a life first. Otherwise you might end up frequenting genital shopping malls … or become the subject of a virtual child-pornography investigation like the one going on now in Germany. The BBC reports that Second Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that members have been paying for sex with virtual children and trading kiddie porn–virtual and real.
So-called age play isn’t exactly a new phenomenon in Second Life. Linden Lab, the virtual world’s creator, has been dealing with it for some time now. “There are people in (Second Life) who are role-playing (as) children engaged in sexual activities,” Robin Harper, Linden Lab vice president of community development wrote in a recent post to the official Second Life forum. “While not a terms-of-service violation–no illegal activity–it could be argued that this behavior is broadly offensive and therefore violates the community standards.”
It sure could–especially when it sparks a real-world police investigation.
