This week I wrote a few classifieds, for shops, and for the skatepark in Undercity. However, when I wanted to write something like “kool hangout place for teen and kid avatars”, I got an error message, telling me the word ‘forteen’ would not be allowed in a second life classified.
Wow. I mean, “forteen” wasn’t even what I had written, it was “for teen avatars”. But still, wow. Thats something new, at least for me, and I consider it a new low in Second Life censorship.
It reminds me a little of Microsofts Xbox Live service, where you can’t have a username with the word “gay” in it. If you ask Xbox Live’s supervisors about this, they will tell you they personally dont find the gamertag to be offensive, but it had been deemed so by the “greater Xbox 360 community:”
Does that remind you of something called “broadly offensive” in SL?
Of course, the consequence of all this is, that gay gamers are being made invisible on Xbox Live – in the same way teen avatars and places for teens are made insivisible in Second Life’s ads. What do you think about that? Did you ever try to put out a classified in SL and were censored? What part of your text would not be accepted? Are there any guidelines, and if yes, do they help to curb intolerance against kid avatars, or do they just limit our freedom in the virtual world? Tell me your experiences with classifieds and censorship, and your opinion.
