Linden Lab has never had a good record when it comes to verifying that those who are in Second Life are old enough to be in Second Life. For years, the account signup process has been an open door, requiring no real-life identification to establish an account.

Following the creation of Zindra and the push to move all mainland adult content to this new restricted space, Second Life put into place a third-party system that required input of some form of personal identification. This didn’t work very well, particularly outside of the United States and required many international users to work harder to age-verify their accounts. However, Linden Lab was able to say they were doing due diligence to keep children out of particularly the adult areas of Second Life.

So fast forward to this evening as I’m finally remembering to log in an alt that I created over a year ago. Going to the age-verification page, I encounter this:

I entered my legitimate birthdate, clicked the “I’m honestly not lying about my age” box, pressed “Submit” and then attempted to teleport to a sim in Zindra. I received the warning that my settings needed to be adjusted in the viewer, so Icorrected it and tried again. And this avatar, with no information on file with LL other than a Gmail address, was age-verified.

So Second Life is back where it started, an open door with no security whatsoever.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all deluded into thinking that Second Life hasn’t always had minors sneaking into the Main Grid. What’s different now is that we have a grid that is entirely devoted to explicitly-adult content. Further, a minor is not considered by the legal system to be competent to sign any legal document attesting to anything. So faking an over-18 birthday carries no consequences for them if they’re caught, other than losing their account.

For all of the freakouts people had over the migration of 16 and 17-year-olds to General regions of the main grid, I’m amazed that nothing’s being said about this. This negates the entire reason for creating Zindra in the first place, if the only thing keeping children from adult content is a sign that essentially says, “Cross your heart that you’re not lying.”

Even the wording seems to dare teenagers to lie about their age:

By checking this box, you’re confirming that the date of birth entered above is true and accurate. Adult content in Second Life is just that — for adults only. We’ll spell it out for you: If you are under 18 years of age, do not check this box! If you are at least 18, check it and off you go!

GAH.

So as adult content has begun to seep back into Moderate sims, and there’s really not even a speedbump to keep minors from entering Moderate and Adult-rated regions, it seems that all of the upheaval that took place in 2009 was ultimately for naught.

I can’t help but wonder why this change took place, and with no notice to owners of adult businesses and/or creators of adult content. I mean, I’m happy that SL seems to have shifted their policy on promoting adult content – but I can’t say that anyone operating an adult business in SL can feel good about this.

So if you choose to frolic in adult sims, please keep in mind that there is presently no genuinely “adults-only” part of Second Life.