Fox News Discovers Second Life; Calls on Edwards to Denounce Virtual Underage Sex Brothels

Fox News political analyst and former AOL VP Kirsten Powers has posted a video blog calling for Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards to denounce some of his unseemly second life neighbors, including the "virtual rape fantasy clubs, virtual underage sex brothels and sadly unsurprising proliferation of porn." Behold the video:

An Excerpt from the blog itself is below the fold:

From Kirsten Powers' Blog:

"As you will see, the Edwards HQ has some disturbed neighbors. Particularly troubling are the rape fantasy clubs and the child sex brothel called Jailbait (the "owner" of the club, a 35-year- old woman named Emily Semaphore refers it as "age-play.") The "Second Life Herald" complains that "Intersexed Avatar Children Hard to Find" [I think Kirsten's irony detectors need adjusting -- Uri] and provides this handy graph to explain what kind of virtual child sex the adult members of Second Life are engaging in

And when I went to check out the "most visited places" almost every place on the list involved porn. If the Edwards campaign is going to have a presence in Second Life, then it seems they should seize the opportunity to take a stand against the virtual rape fantasy clubs, virtual underage sex brothels and sadly unsurprising proliferation of porn."

Comments

[Ashcroft Arnold]

FOX News. Making Second Life look bad. Why didn't I see this coming.

I swear, if FOX news is the worst news-program I've ever seen.

[Panda]

There goes the neighborhood.

[shockwave yareach]

When fox news complains about the very same things that are taking place in realspace (and probably within a mile of their corporate headquarters) I shall care what they have to say. Not much more, mind you. But a tiny whit is still more than I care what fox news has to say now.

Didn't Fox news buy an island in SL a few months ago?

[Macphisto Angelus]

It was bound to happen eventually. When Presidential hopefuls and other high profile people start utilizing the "platform" Philip and Co. claim is the future, you can bet someone is going to be kicking the tires and shining the light on the seedy side of things.

What is Philip's next move then? To keep it a believable "platform" for RL companies to live and work in something will have to give. I can only think that the corporations and John Edwards types are listening to those building the presence for them instead of exploring to see what it is about. Would John Edwards' think tank buy ad space on sites that explore these subjects? VERY unlikely.

[Macphisto Angelus]

>>Didn't Fox news buy an island in SL a few months ago?

If so it seems they actually explore some rather then park a place on a sim and hope for visitors.

[jummy]

i do believe she was being toungue-in-cheek about her "demand" that edwards condemn the pervs on sl.

still, the proliferation of stupid sex crap is offensive if only for the lack of creativity it demonstrates. i was watching a guy on my sim building his nightclub (third on the sim so far). he couldn't finish putting up the outside walls because he used up all his prims putting those stupid fuck-balls all over the second floor. pathetic.

and i'm not suggesting that the lindens should have a policy one way or another on this, but anyone going to jailbait to fuck virtual children are fucking disgusting. i understand that most of us are pretty liberal, but just because it's fox doesn't mean it's wrong. i'm willing to ascend to fox'sposition that pedophilia is wrong.

[Nacon]

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!! What a good joke from FOX News, they are 3 years late on that kind of news.

[About Time]

Finally the truth about SL is reported. Loved the view of the Popular list..

Time for a Commercial Grid, Residential Grid, Sleaze Grid, Vegas Grid and a I don't fit or belong in any Society Grid.

[Anon]

Wait a minute... if the most visited sites are porn sites, shouldn't candidates be in FAVOR of porn in order to garner votes?

Seriously, if you go by popularity, it seems the numbers bear out that a PRO-PORN campaign would totally rock the polls.

[jummy]

"Time for a Commercial Grid, Residential Grid, Sleaze Grid, Vegas Grid and a I don't fit or belong in any Society Grid."

if they start zoning the place, then maybe there'd be a meaningful context for metapolitics.

[Comment Tard]

What? Is Prokofy sick? Where's my 2500 word diatribe on what Prok knew before all of the rest of us, and how wrong we all are anyway?

[Wayfinder Wishbringer]

LOL. I loved that video. I mean, part of it was tongue-in-cheek, and as someone said above, Fox seems to be one skunk saying the other skunk stinks (oh wait, no, Fox doesn't have any sexually-based shows, does it?). But for the most part, that video was right-on-the-button and a very accurate commentary on Second Life.

However... the comment about "4 million residents" is just a tribute to how effective Linden Lab propaganda can be. Geeminy... do these people actually believe everything they read on a splash page? LOL. Reduce that figure to about five percent, deduct 15% of that for alts and camping chairs and another 50% in freebie users (at least), and you have the actual "resident" mark (ie, paying subscriber figures). Of course, that's pretty much common knowledge by now. But hey, gotta admit, LL really knows how to stoke the propaganda engine.

I can picture a sign up on LL corporate walls: "Win by sheer force of numbers". If they can only pull 1% of everyone who visits... just get a few million people to visit. Bulldog tenacity is one method of "success", I guess. Me, I'll enjoy RL and fun videos like this. LOL

[Ordinal Malaprop]

FOX News - amazingly enough - criticising the bourgeois neo-liberal Edwards for something he would probably like to shut down but can't. I would say more, but I just... can't... defeat... the... cynicism. If only the SLLA was actually real.

[Prokofy Neva]

Good for Fox News. They stated the obvious that everybody has been saying all along. Just because they're Faux News on other things, doesn't mean they got this one wrong.

Good! If the Edwards campaign moved into a redlight district in NYC, it might raise questions. In SL, you're only a p2p away from anything that's objectionable. You can kick and scream and say you shouldn't be tarred with that same brush, but you do have to answer for it -- what have you done to disassociate yourself with something odious and objectionable like a "capture roleplay"? I think it's a good thing to condemn slavery and violence in this fashion, and officials seeking office do well to make such condemnations so people know where they stand on the moral spectrum.

It's also good for Edwards to come to grips with the awful vandalism and "parody" in SL which actually undermines civilization, and doesn't advance it. It's a safe place for a parody, but the parody is advanced not for the sake of social satire, but for the sake of making a jihadist-style extremist attack on people who take the virtual world seriously, representing a really objectionable nihilist ideology as we see in W-hat operatives.

Can't help thinking that Edwards' rivals must have put him into Second Life; they may have done him a disservice. It's a tough beat to work, not for the faint-hearted.

Macphisto is right. When SL becomes a platform for the rich and powerful to play on, as we see now, with saturation coverage, you bet there will be people kicking the tires and looking at the seemy side of things.

Watch the Popular Places list disappear off the next Linden patch like snow in April.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

"Watch the Popular Places list disappear off the next Linden patch like snow in April."

Yes. _Wonderful._ Just what we wanted, eh? Because the prurient RL media, as obsessed with sex as the W-Hatters but without even their limited sense that they themselves are equally ridiculous, look at the Find, it gets shut down so as not to make a scene - just because of the campaign of one set of corrupt American bastards to rule over another set of corrupt American bastards. Terrific. And tragically, entirely realistic.

You cannot possibly say that FOX News would not have highlighted any sex aspect in SL whatsoever for this. Even if there was some hardcoded requirement before people cybered in SL that they were RL married, they would still find some way of making it look weird and dirty.

[Wayfinder Wishbringer]

You know, I have long felt that Linden Lab made a major mistake in the way they handled sexuality on Second Life.

Granted, it would be difficult to even attempt to ban sexuality from such a board (although if I'm not incorrect, other VR systems have successfully done so). The nature of Second Life makes such activities almost a certainty (although on PG sims it's also possible to alienate oneself from such things to an extent). But no matter what kind of "morality rules" there are... people are going to get around them. Fact of life. So I can understand that LL didn't attempt to fruitlessly regulate such on their system. If someone decides to buy an island and set up a nude beach, and if LL decides to allow that, that's their business. If people want to set up a bedroom on a sim, it's not anyone's place to try and enforce their moralistic viewpoints on them. For one thing, it just won't work SL is after all, somewhat a social experiment.

That is a far cry however, from openly tolerating and even condoning sex in the streets. It is a far cry from allowing people to walk about naked through a shopping mall or have some guy wearing a 3 ft "organ" and ramming into girls. Are we to believe that such activities are necessary for the welfare of Second Life. Hardly.

Linden Lab could exhibit general tolerance and allow public expression without finding it proper to tolerate blatant X-rated videos to be broadcast on the side of a skyscraper or pictures of gory rape displayed on the wall of a club.

For the most part, "mature" sims are anything but. Supposed adults traverse the lands with 5th-grader gee-whiz-looka-that mentality and in truth, there's very little that is "adult" about the "adult" landscape of Second Life. Linden Lab, there were other ways to do things.

The blatant, "pimp-board" mentality so excessively prevalent on Second Life actually drives people away from the board. Many businesses won't support it because they fear being associated with such a thing (as happened in this Fox video). People with a personal sense of morality won't support it because they find it offensive (and whether others agree with their viewpoints or not is irrelevant. They have every right to not use a board that offends their sensibilities).

There is no reason that a person walking down a street on a "mature" sim should have blatant sexuality shoved up their nose. Since when did "mature sim" equate to red-light distict? People have for a long, long time spoken of zoning Second Life, but Linden Lab has repeatedly resisted such moves. Ansche Chung did zone... and quite successfully, proving that such a concept can work. Dividing sims between "pg" and "mature" is far too little and far too ineffective.

There would be nothing wrong at all with Linden Lab setting up a few ground rules. We had a very simple rule on our sims (which were PG):

"What you do in your own home is your business. What you do in the streets is ours".

We recognized that people have a right to live as they wish within their home and even on a PG sim, we gave them certain inherent rights. But they knew how far those rights went-- and how far they didn't.

Linden Lab could have implemented basic concepts to prevent the whole system from becoming one huge orgy:

* No public nudity on the main grid, not even on mature sims.
* No public sex.
* "Mature" clubs may not display pornography visible from the outside and must bear indication notice on their building of what lies within so that passerby will be informed.
* Accosting anyone in a sexual manner is strictly against TOS and may result in immediate 24 hour ban, and permaban in some situations.
* Shops selling "adult" goods must bear notification of such on the outside and such may not be visible from outside the limits of their store/booth. Those selling adult items visible to the general public (such as in a sidewalk vendor) must properly edit such items for public view (see rule #1).

Linden Lab could have done any of these things (or more, or less. I'm not the one in charge). But instead, they chose to do NONE of these things and basically allow people to do whatever they want to do, even to the point of blatant pedophelia and rape. It's very difficult to condone such policies. In this, the Fox video was right on the money.

Such total lack of ethics or moderation of their system is one of the major complaints heard about Linden Lab. It encourages griefing and sexual abuse. But in addition, as Jummy pointed out above-- it detracts from the potential creativity and beauty of SL by encouraging people to give in to their base desires rather than channelling such energies toward learning, beautifying, socializing and making something out of their SL expierience beyond 3-D cybering.

Why Linden Lab refuses to moderate such things is obvious: sex sells. They've used it in their own advertising.

There is nothing wrong with sex and sexuality. It's a basic component of human existence. But it is also one of the most extremely abused things in the universe. On Second Life, Linden Lab has allowed it to go to an unmoderated, uncontrolled, pimp-board extreme. That's what the Fox video was commenting on-- and they couldn't have been more accurate in their portayal of this board. Very few people have advocated total censorship of such things. But many have asked for basic common sense and SOME degree of moderation-- especially in public venues. "Mature" does not automatically stipulate "anything goes". "Maturity" doesn't just apply to physical age and sexual ability; it's supposed to apply to mentality and emotional maturity as well.

These thoughts were recently echoed by PCMag. Same comments have been made before, on both forums and blogs. These thoughts are nothing new. But on Second Life, nothing has changed either. If anything, with the advent of "Ageplay" things have gotten worse. People who before enjoyed child avatars are now finding themselves regularly accosted by perverted players with child-fixations.

Which is why the net badly needs a viable alternative to Second Life.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

I am Pat Robertson and I approve this message.

[Macphisto Angelus]

I don't think if search poofs it will be due to just this video or John Edwards.
LL has made most all of it's moves of late from opening up account restrictions to increasing the prices of Islands and Island tiers all in preparation for the real world entities to take it seriously and sign on. I am quite sure the consulting companies that they contract and build sims, etc for them offer the same rose tinted view of the place as LL tries to sell. We have all known since we landed of the underbelly of SL. I am quite sure most of the businesses, etc running in take the word of those who stand to make a profit from them over actually checking the place out. Most likely wouldn't sign on to a place that turns it's head and claims freedom for the residents as long as it doesn't conflict with the TOS. No worries about the laws, after all it is up to the legal entities to get into if they wish.

This kind of attitude is not one most businesses would sign on with if they knew. The popular places list only shows the symptoms. It would be in LL's best interest to sweep it under the carpet to keep attracting the outside world. I really do not think LL is going to be able to maintain both sides of this. For public perception in the business world it will need to be unoffensive to the customers they market to. Yet for a resident they want freedom to do anything they want, most without the courtesy of keeping things out of the public view or those who could be offended. Once the PR wheels start turning at these companies that invested it may shake many loose. Then will LL make more and more rules to stop them from going? That is what has me curious. Who will Philip ultimately favor, the residents that built the world or the real world businesses that utilize it? I think I already know the answer to that.

[jummy]

Ordinal Malaprop thinks child molesters are a-okay and any opposition to the practice is making way too big a deal of it. he figures that, "hey, if a guy is fucking a nine, ten, eleven year old child, who's he hurtin'?

"leave the guy alone, churchy," he sez.

actually, this is pretty consistant. i don't think mao was either personally or programmaticly opposed to sex with pre-pubescent girls. prevented those messy piles at the foot of the cliff from getting too high.

[Redaktisto Noble]

Hey here's a scoop for the Herald to cover - FOX News' New York headquarters (1211 Avenue of the Americas) is within blocks of several adult entertainment stores! Maybe they should take a clear stand against the wickedness which surely must tempt all visitors to their office.

[Prokofy Neva]

"Watch the Popular Places list disappear off the next Linden patch like snow in April."

No, I oppose this. I've always spoken out against the Lindens leaving it absolutely alone, and I periodically yell at Flipper and other FIC and tell them to get their paws off it. You can't hide human nature. You let it go, and you let the good drive out the bad, by expanding the list. And if it doesn't, well, shield your eyes, scroll down, you're a grown-up.

I'm just saying the Lindens will seize at this as an excuse to remove it.

Yes, Macphisto, and the answer is: he will favour the businesses -- he has to, to make a profit and harness their customers and capacity -- and he will simply open up a new grid for them, not for us.

They'll think up some super special system like Google and Kaneva have, which is a lot like those cheerleaders and soriety sisters you loved to hate, whereby you can only get into the club if someone else invites you. They claim this is about "trust" and blah blah, but's just a clearance and vetting system, and it will be deployed to keep it very much a walled garden.

[Prokofy Neva]

>within blocks of several adult entertainment stores!

Naah, not anymore. Disney took over the formerly risque 42nd St. Times Square West area, and now you have to go clear over to 8th and 9th avenue by the bus stations to find anything remotely what you're talking about, and it's actually been pushed down further to the 20s toward Chelsea. And in fact, it was businesses like these big media companies that advocated cleaning up and revitatlizing the area.

[Redaktisto Noble]

Hey Prok try it yourself - use "Find businesses" from the link I gave and use your imagination.

[jummy]

jesus christ, you humorlous retard, the call for edwards to condemn was a joke.

when you come on here with your brow furrowed urgently emitting spittle and trying some sort of ascerbic turn-around against fox, you look like a foolish ass.

after that last comment, you and jose rote look even more like foolish asses than you did an hour ago when you publisized w-hat's hilarious joke on you. i had totally forgotten that there's a phoney tv psychic named john edwards! lol! i'm going to go hang out with them when i get home tonight.

[Redaktisto Noble]

Ah I meant to say the "Search nearby" feature.

[Redaktisto Noble]

What does "humorlous" mean? I can't find it in ANY of my dictionaries.
The call on the video clip was not a joke, and in fact is repeated on Powers' blog. She also says she "accidentally" joined a terrorist group in SL. I can just imagine what the typical Fox viewer thought about THAT.
BTW, I don't have any problem with the John Edward group. They, in fact, have said they're kicking out anyone who graffitis the Edwards site. And the news has driven a lot of traffic our way, too.

[jummy]

lets not let typos and chickenshit diversions like argument by spellcheck obscure the heart of the matter.

you said something we all knew as soon as we heard about this. you said, "the news has driven a lot of traffic our way."

i really don't doubt it. i did doubt that the "vandals" were republicans, and it turns out that i was correct on that point as well.

something that's kinda odd though, is how was it that the "vandals" were able to rez objects and modify textures at edwards hq when previously object entry and object creation were turned off on the parcel?

kinda wierd isn't it? i mean, the default for even a stupid cube is for it to only be editable by the creater. how did the "vandals" change the textures without someone giving them permission?

not that any of this is serious serious business or anything, but it sure would be ugly for an slnn reporter to be caught making the news with the help of some hired goons.

[jummy]

it would also be par for the course if this were another episode in which progressives fake their own victimhood to frame non-progressives as the perpetrator.

[redaktisto Noble]

Jummy you should totally write for the Herald, or maybe even Fox News. :)
Neither I nor Jose had any part in the vandalism, that's a stupid allegation. Objects have been allowed on the parcel since it was put up, since it was intended as a collaborative build. Vandals didn't change the textures, they dropped objects on top of the floor.

[urizenus]

Smart money says this was a 4Chan operation.

The interesting thing in all this is that Ms. Powers supposedly gives the liberal point of view on Fox.

[Prokofy Neva]

No, I don't think it's 4Chan. I think it's the Safari W-hat people.

[jummy]

"Vandals didn't change the textures, they dropped objects on top of the floor."

your co-shill claimed that the "vandals" stole textures from you. i'm just going over your story to see if it adds up, and it doesn't.

[Redaktisto Noble]

Do you know that there's a difference between changing a texture on someone else's object, and copying a texture for use on your own object? How long have you been in SL?

[Hiro Pendragon]

I'm insulted that she added the gesture for parenthesis while saying the word "news", when mentioning Reuters. If anyone's "news" should be surround by parenthesis, it's the tripe they serve up at Fox!

[Hiro Pendragon]

Yay! At 1:24 in the video, my free vendor kit is CLEARLY visible on the left with my red "H" logo! WOO HOO! My stuff got on Fox! LOL!

Her AV name is clearly visible on the video ... why don't we send her comments directly about what we think? :)

[Wayfinder Wishbringer]

You know, I'm starting to wonder if 90% of the posters on this blog are 13 year old pimply-faced antisocial misfits who are so arrogant and insecure in themselves that they can't make a point without insulting everyone else in the process.

I'm getting to the point that if I see even the hint of the word "tard" or "twit" or "idiot" or any similar personal attacks... I bleep past that post. I just figure there can't be much there of any great wisdom. If they had confidence enough in their position-- they wouldn't have to flame the opposition to get the point across.

Sigh, there's always trolls. And mind you, it's not that trolls are brainless. They just believe everyone else is.

C'mon guys. Not one person insulted me, so this isn't for my sake. This is a general plea: stick to the subject, make your point, check the attitude at the door. Geez.

[Hiro Pendragon]

Did I say parenthesis? Geez, I'm tired. I meant quotation marks. :)

[Wayfinder Wishbringer]

Hey Hiro! How you doing? I didn't see your name before. Haven't talked with you in a while. Life treating you well I hope. I've lost track of old acquaintances during the last several months, but always good to see one post from time to time. Best wishes to you.

[csven]

Interesting vid. Thanks for posting this.

[Simon Lameth]

One of the FOX Film Corporations has an island. FNC does not, yet...

[Michael Seraph]

Fox News is broadcast on cable. Porn is broadcast on cable. This silly woman's show is broadcast only a channel away from porn! When will we see Fox condemning the big cable companies for being the biggest purveyors of porn in the nation? We won't. Conservative family values are always about other people's families, other people's values.

[Nacon]

Hiro is alive again? Jesus!

[Nacon]

Btw, I was on Tv too, Hiro... woot for me?

(Yes, from SL, duh.)

[Tenshi Vielle]

God DAMN do I feel pigeonholed. Fuck you, Fox news. Fuck you hard.

[Lieb]

"I am Pat Robertson and I approve this message.

Posted by: Ordinal Malaprop"

No, you're a fucking moron with no sense of scale or context.

[Jayson Watkin]

The thing I haven't seen is the candidates that have websites or have videos on YouTube aren't being asked to condemn pornography on the internet or YouTube.

And its always funny to see the network that had "who wants to marry a millionaire" and "temptation island" complain about values.

[Kurt]

Next she's going to acuse presidentual hopefulls of liking porn because she can google their name and end up with results that include porn.

I do think she has two great points:
If your going to have a sl presence, it's probable a good idea to buy a private sim so you can controll the expernces.
if your going to have an sl presence, have staff to facilitate relation ships with visitors, and train your staff to share your vision.

Unforchently a private island requires a utility expense of 5,215 for the first year, and 3600 for each additional year.

[Rock Ramona]

the woman was right,i wish more people would report the truth about Second Life,there are a lot of sick people here and it seems that their behavior is magnified.Very little of Second Life represents mainstream america,it has become a hideaway of perverted,sick and twisted people. I know there are some good people,and some good things happening,but it is a tiny percentage and we all know it.I just hope that someday as im logging off,i dont turn into a pillar of salt.................

[Jessica Holyoke]

I will admit it would be better for the Edwards experience to include some sort of greeter or more information.

However, I object to Rock's denoucement of Second Life as being non-representative of mainstream America. First, if Second Life is representing a fantasy or alternative existence, then why must it be mainstream? I realize the Lindens would love the Grid to be as "disneyfied" as Times Square, but many people use Second Life as an id gone wild fantasy that, by definition, is not going to be mainstream.

Second, why must it be America? I'm sure the Dutch, English, Canadians, Germans, Spanish, Mexican and French that are joining us would like their values represented as well. Its an internationally shared experience.

[Wayfinder Wishbringer]

>Fox News is broadcast on cable. Porn is broadcast on cable. This silly woman's show is broadcast only a channel away from porn! When will we see Fox condemning the big cable companies for being the biggest purveyors of porn in the nation? We won't. Conservative family values are always about other people's families, other people's values. -- Posted by: Michael Seraph | March 02, 2007 at 02:20 AM the woman was right,i wish more people would report the truth about Second Life,there are a lot of sick people here and it seems that their behavior is magnified.Very little of Second Life represents mainstream america,it has become a hideaway of perverted,sick and twisted people. I know there are some good people,and some good things happening,but it is a tiny percentage and we all know it. -- Posted by: Rock Ramona If your going to have a sl presence, it's probable a good idea to buy a private sim so you can controll the expernces. Unforchently a private island requires a utility expense of 5,215 for the first year, and 3600 for each additional year. -- Posted by: Kurt<

Yup, and there's the rub. Land on SL is more expensive than it needs to be, more expensive than it has any right to be (and yet people are goofy enough to buy it. Just more proof that some people have waaay too much disposable income).

Now an option of course, is to rent zoned land (which is why Ansche's lands do so well). That keeps out the riff-raff. Or, one can have an entire group join funds and purchase an island and pay monthly tier, but then you risk having the "owener of record" (the single name under which Linden Lab insists on registering the island) turn renegade and pull the sim(s) out from under the group (and I can guarantee you Linden Lab will do nothing about that).

Which is why I and others point out to people that SL is a really, really lousy investment. Not only is the platform unstable, but there are no ethics, accountability, or a "legal" system of any kind incorporated into the board. SL is a good idea gone bad.

You know one thing I would have liked to see out of this video: I would have liked for the woman to question how many actual paid subscribers Linden Lab has... and question why they are so adverse to publishing those figures. I and others have dared them to do so and oddly-- they never reply. I would have to believe their actual paying member figures (ie, their REAL 'residency') is pretty dismal.