We've taken a long look at the way Second Life beta age-verification works (or fails to) as far as the age-verification provider Aristotle/Integrity is concerned. The next part ultimately is how does age-restriction actually work on the Second Life grid?
With the aid of a test subject and the latest release candidate, we took a look at the age-verification based access-restriction flag to find out exactly what it does.
Switching it on (as pictured at the top) does not seem to affect an age-unverified user if they are a land-owner or member of the group that owns the land. For them, nothing at all happens.
For an age-unverified third-party things change a little.
An age-unverified party confronted with an age-verification-restricted parcel cannot:
- Be within 50 metres of the ground while within the property lines of the parcel - even if they are sitting on an object.
- Err. There is no rule 2.
An age-unverified party confronted with an age-verification-restricted parcel can:
- See any and all content on the parcel.
- Hear sounds (except when additionally spatially restricted) from the parcel.
- Hear voice (except when additionally spatially restricted) from the parcel.
- Interact with vendors and objects and make purchases - so long as they don't need to cross the parcel boundary.
The 50 metre ground-approach restriction isn't actually much of a restriction either. With physics being more or less optional in Second Life, and flight being available to all, many people choose to build in the air.
Especially and particularly when there's mature or lewd content involved - the majority of non-PG content in Second Life is up in the air, well above the 50 metre mark. Age-verification-restrictions on your parcel will have no effect on age-unverified users above that height.
Much of Second Life's mature content is up in the air, so to speak.
