Darn straight they could. Second Life could be on the hitlist, the more so because of the Zindra continent for adult content.
While Second Life clearly isn’t a game, I doubt that anyone involved in the process really cares about that trivial little detail. We’re all pretty sure this isn’t really about games anyway, right? After all, the current list also censors religion, political opinion, veterinarians, and school lunches.
Couldn’t the ACMA just block access to the adult SL continent? Well, with the cooperation of the Lab, that’s possible, but seriously… The government stands to gain more political mileage by blocking all of SL to Australian users than just the adult bits. I wouldn’t think that they would bother putting in the effort.
There are two campaigns worth your attention:
If you’re a gamer, the EFA’s R18+ rating for games (currently no game can receive a classification if it is not suitable for a 15-year-old).
Or if you’re concerned about politics, religion, anti-abortion, medical references, dentists, and school tuckshops being censored in secret (mixed up with all the other material), you should look at the EFA’s No Clean Feed campaign.
Meanwhile, Lowell Cremorne of The Metaverse Journal has some tough questions in an open letter to Senator Conroy.
My understanding from the statement by Linden Lab is that Second Life is not a game within the terms of current law or any proposed law. LL say they have confirmed that with Conroy’s office.
Really? My understanding is that Linden Lab has not sought confirmation from Conroy’s office at all. Where did they say it? I’d like to see exactly what they confirmed.
I’m relying on the statement from Linden Lab. I assume, perhaps bravely, that LL actually contacted Conroy’s office before issuing that statement.
As noted at Dusan’s site SL has never been mentioned in the Senate or House of Representatives and there is only one committee mention.
The Act itself defines interactive game as having stages or levels. My own judgement is that a court could not read the definition, taking account of the purposive rule in Australian law, to include SL which lacks those characteristics.
I do not exclude the possibility that Conroy, a social conservative nutter with no grasp of technical issues, may want to legislate against virtual worlds at some stage. I do say he has no chance of passing such a law. The numbers in the present Senate would prevent the passage of such legislation and, at least in the case of SL, the limited protection for freedom of communication first articulated by the High Court in Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills would, at least arguably, make such a ban unconstitutional.
I am told, although I cannot quote any source for obvious reasons, that there is considerable disquiet in the ALP caucus over Conroy’s enthusiasm for banning stuff.
Okay, so the Lab has no confirmation. I don’t either. I’m still trying to get the media people at the Minister’s office to talk about the proposal at all. They don’t seem to be willing to talk to the media about the proposal at this time.
And things are stirring in Australia too
Save the Children opposes Internet filter
Their management of tickets (it’s very strange), the first phase should be directed to the merchant and can be noticed that a lot of benefit of the individual lots are not traders, some traders doing more in the adult not been categorized as such, and were proposing to buy their land.
So we can ask many questions especially since the avatars have obtained lots are recent or dealer of land.
Many old avatar, we decided to close their paid account to go on Opensim
[...] I spent some time discussing the issue with Tateru Nino (who’s written on the issue here and here) and she made a really good point: by creating its adult-only continent in Second life, has Linden [...]