Second Life:...... a real can of Creepy

My intentions are to illustrate the horrible truths that have become Second Life in hopes that teachers and parents around the world will see it for what it is: a sick twisted world rampant with deviants and sexual predators that have inhabited this failed academic experiment who extort and prey upon the innocent as long as it remains legal to do so.

With the popularity of MMO’s and other MMORPG’s we are starting to see the immergence of many new social disorders linked to a world created that has evolved to foster illicit and illegal behavior. Second Life is one such MMO world that clearly has become a haven for the new age predator. Although its intent was not to be a world that fosters these actions it has been inhabited and overtaken. Why can’t we just appreciate it for what it was and destroy it before we allow it to go any farther.

Did you know that Second Life has a Sex Island, Red Light district and “Rape Rooms”?(Grant). Real world companies have even set up virtual whorehouses, brothels and strip clubs monitored by virtual pimps. The sex industry within Second Life is one of the biggest and most profitable within this creepy microcosm of an online world. The very real and very disturbing aspect of this online sex world is that is evolving into including phone and video sex within its companies set up to profit from this disturbing trend. This isn’t your 90’s chat rooms anymore where there are four teenagers pretending to be a girl and laugh when a dirty word comes up, these companies have policies and hiring practices when selecting these “avatars” to work for them in their virtual cesspools. (Boutin)

There are only two possible argument in defense of this online world and other MMO’s, the first is to allow those who have failed to succeed in the real world to develop social skills to the point where they may go on to succeed in reality. For those who believe this is a valid argument I would rebut with demanding clarification on the existence of “rape rooms”, Sex Island, virtual prostitution and the prevalent Red Light districts and their impact on ones development of social skills One other possible argument that could be made in defense of second life is the account settings where teens are supposed to register for a teen account and adults are supposed to register for an adult account. First off I would imagine there is likely more predators that register as teens than teens themselves, also this system only works if individuals respects EULA’s and do not abuse the system.

Google had come out with a similar MMO world called Lively, which has since being disabled most likely because it was PG rated and Censored by Google. “Anecdotally, many of Second Life's users are there for virtual sex. (The company has banned gambling, so there's little other reason to go there.) The PG-rated Lively, censored by Google, did not even have that; its only draw was innocuous chat, with the occasional subversive attempt by users at raciness” (Thomas)

As an education that utilizes technology in every class I would say that this concept has great concepts but this is definitely not a place for our students. We must acknowledge that Second Life is one of the first MMO worlds that was created and is now a basis or a framework of which we could build something much better and more importantly safer for students.

You would have to be naïve to think that the internet was not created for or benefited from the sex industry, e.g. online chat, video conferencing, online banking, money exchange like Paypal and just the growth of the internet can be attributed to the sex industry. Ask any student about pornography and they will tell you that it is easier to find on the internet than any other place in the world. Being that it is so easy to find pornography on the Internet more often than not there is some sort of safeguard, I know they are ineffective and pointless to say the least but even this small token of sensitivity is not evident in Second Life.

Do educators know the ins and outs of this Creepy Tree house? If not, it is my intention to inform the masses. Second Life is NOT a place for students. Nor is it a place that should exists on the Internet. It perpetuates illicit and illegal behavior and by not shutting it down we are condoning these actions. Second Life needs to be discussed in our universities an our classrooms but only that it is to be avoided at all costs, despite any potential benefits people believe it held in the past.

Sources
Boutin, Paul. Virtual hookers to help us get laid off. 8:00 PM on Tue Oct 21 2008,
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5066792/virtual-hookers-to-help-us-get-laid-off

Grant, Melissa Gira, Congressman gets in on Second Life's "rape rooms" 8:00 PM on Tue May 6 2008, http://valleywag.gawker.com/387829/congressman-gets-in-on-second-lifes-rape-rooms


Thomas, Owen, Second Life's death knell, 1:40 PM on Thu Nov 20 2008, http://valleywag.gawker.com/5094671/second-lifes-death-knell

Thomas, Owen. The End of Second Life. 12:00 PM on Sun Feb 22 2009, http://valleywag.gawker.com/5158190/the-end-of-second-life

Definitions:
MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online
MMORPG Massively multiplayer online role playing game
EULA: End License user agreement