Germans Pursuing Kiddie Porn In Second Life

Several readers sent in links to the BBC, which has picked up news of a German investigation into child pornography in Second Life. A German TV station captured images of two avatars, an apparent adult and an apparent child, involved in sexual activity. The station also said they had infiltrated a ring trading real-world child porn in SL. SL creator Linden Labs is cooperating fully with the investigation, they write on their official blog: "Our investigations revealed the users behind these avatars to be a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman. Both were immediately banned from Second Life." The German prosecutor's office hasn't responded to Linden's offer of help in identifying the real-world traders.

Comments

Confused.

[endianx]

This is in the games category. Is Second Life a game? I must admit I don't know much about it, but I didn't think it was.

Re:Confused.

[kestasjk]

Lawyer - Janet, I have a model of your avatar here. For the benefit of the jury will you point to the polygon that the defendant clicked on?

Janet - *Meekly points*

Courtroom - *Gasp! Shocked murmuring*

Defendant - *Sinks face into hands, goes pale*

Judge - "Order! Order!" *Bang Bang*

Re:Thought crimes?

[theStorminMormon]

If you can, check out the other article I found (but was unable to find full text so far). I think it may address some of your concerns, but I'm not finished reading the study (I was aware of it 2nd hand as it was referenced in another book.)

I think the article I linked to is about the same experiment, but just seems to go more in-depth (it's 13 pages long). It's worth noting that in this study the porn was 100% consensual (no rape porn or even sadomasochistic stuff) so we're evaluating non-violent porn here and still finding it to have a significant impact in attitudes about women.

This is the part about attitudes towards rape (I'm just typing it in by hand from the .pdf):

"Students were then introduced to a rape case, reading the newspaper coverage of a hitchiking that resulted in the sexual offense. The rapist's conviction was reported, but a sentene was not stated. Studnes were asked to recommend a prison term for the paticular offense. The length of th term was considered to indicate disapproval or condemnation of rape. Sexual callousnes toward women was expected to find expression in minimal prison sentences. Students also indicated their support for the female liberation movement on a scale ranging from 0 (no support) to 100 (maximal support). This assessment was included tolearn whether callousness, should it be created, generalizes from sex to gender."

Here's table 3 from the paper "Number of months recommended for rape, as a function of massive exposure to pornography (by gender)" (Massive, by the way, means like 48 minutes a week.)

Male
Conrol: 93.7
No exposure: 94.6
intermediate exposure: 78.0
massive exposure: 49.8

Female
Control: 119.7
No exposure: 143.6
Inter. Exposure: 101.4
Mass. Exposure: 77.0

And here's Table 4: SUpport for the women's liberation movement as a function of massive exposure to pornography (by gender) on a scale from 0 (no support) to 100 (maximal support)

Male
Control: 66.8
No exposure: 71.0
Int. exposure: 48.7
Mass. exposure: 25.0

Female
Control: 76.2
No Exposure: 82.0
Int. Exposure: 59.2
Mass. Exposure: 52.2

That's pretty damming evidence, in my opinion, of a causal relationship between porn (of the non-violent variety!) and callousness towards women and women's issues.

(If I'm quoting stuff you already read, at least it's informative for those who don't want to read the article themselves)