Ban 'Second Life' in schools and libraries, Republican congressman says

Some politicos in the U.S. Congress may be embracing Second Life (pictured here is California Democrat George Miller's press conference in the virtual world last year). But Illinois Republican Mark Kirk says it's a danger zone for children and must be blocked, by law, on school and library computers.

(Credit: Linden Lab)

A Republican congressman who has sponsored legislation banning access to social-networking Web sites in schools and libraries has found a new target of displeasure: Second Life.

Rep. Mark Kirk, who is seeking re-election this year, staged a press conference at a library in his suburban Chicago district on Tuesday to highlight what he called the "dangers" of the virtual world to children. Flanked by local officials, he also released a letter asking Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic to "take action to warn parents of the similar dangers and sexually explicit content found on Second Life."

Kirk said he was appalled that Second Life has no age verification features built into its registration process, and he claimed that there are "countless locations" outside of the service's teen-designated area where virtual prostitution, drug deals, and "other wholly inappropriate activities" occur.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, Kirk recounted an aide's failed attempt to create an avatar on the site as a 10-year-old--and a subsequently successful attempt to log in as an 18-year-old.

"Sites like Second Life offer no protections to keep kids from virtual "rape rooms," brothels, and drug stores," Kirk said, according to a press release. "If sites like Second Life won't protect kids from obviously inappropriate content, the Congress will."

Second Life creator Linden Lab, for its part, released a statement, according to various local news reports, saying, "Members of the Second Life community, including Linden Lab staff, actively monitor against minors accessing the (adult portion of the) service." But Kirk said company officials have acknowledged that it's possible for teens to get into the adult portion of the service, and vice versa.

Kirk's comments were yet another attempt to drum up support for a bill, which he reintroduced last year, known as the Deleting Online Predators Act.

That proposal would require schools and libraries that receive federal subsidies through a program called E-rate to certify that they've put in place a "technology protection measure" on all of their computers that "protects against access to a commercial social-networking Web site or chat room, unless used for an educational purpose with adult supervision."

The definition of "commercial social-networking Web site," however, appears to be broad enough to sweep up blogging and online-journaling services, as well as any site that allows users to create public profiles, from Amazon.com to Slashdot to Yahoo.

The bill would also require the Federal Trade Commission to issue a "consumer alert" outlining the potential "danger" of such Web sites because they can be accessed by child predators.

Similar legislation passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives by a 410-15 vote in 2006 but died in the Senate.

Despite the overwhelmingly favorable vote two years ago, the bill is not without controversy. The American Library Association is staunchly opposed to the proposal, arguing that it ignores the value of interactive Web applications as a learning tool, could block helpful sites, and would inhibit librarians' ability to teach youngsters about how to use the Web safely.

After all, even police agencies--including the Arlington County Police Department outside of Washington, D.C., just this month--are launching MySpace.com profiles these days.

[linadragon]

Kirk is a hack in many ways He brings up this kind of stuff to bring attention to him and its quite disturbing. Second Life is implementing age veriification for some of the more adult areas. Hey Kirky boy there is tons of free porn these kids can look at on their home computers In a school It's doubtful that they'd even have access to something like secondlife at all without circumventing the protection system on the networking of most schools the same goes for libraries as alot already have a security network to prevent certain things from happening Like installing application on the computer that dont belong there Yeah maybe they created an account but did they actually log into Second Life?........ <br /><br />If they lie about their age thats on them and you cant apply a consumer warning because some kid is a lying little twit. Also there is a teen version of Second Life designated for people 13-17 and if they lied thats their fault... I'm frankly sick of these politicians blaming game companies cuz these kids are all lying through their teeth. <br /><br />How about instead of making a consumer warning you force parents to actually parent their children and teach them not to lie? There is no surefire mechanism for keeping children off of porn sites or anything as if they are inclined to lie on a simple birthdate question they are inclined to just ask their parents and sign up for whatever the heck service they want and their parents clearly arnt watching them so it ends up happening... <br /><br />SecondLife has sex yes (the teen version doesnt so if the kids didnt lie there is 0 Sex) Also i think the whole notion that a teenager needs to be protected from all sexual exposure is absurd if you shelter them to much like this Kirk guy wants to they are going to end up having worse problems when they need to get out on their own. They will end up so socially inept that they wont know what is going on around them and this will lead to a bunch of people running around clueless. <br /><br />If a teenager wants to be exposed to sexual things they are going to one way or another Kirky my boy.... They will either steal daddies playboys or girlie mags, their mom's lingerie catalog, or *gasp* actually go out and find a real girl and get her naked and have *gasp* real sexual experiences.<br /><br />Sheltering them will only push them into doing it more and I think you'll find the parents that try and shelter their kids the most actually have more promiscuous kids then those parents that are open with their kids about sex and tell them how to behave responsibly. Its come to a point where our country is overly safeguarding everything for the "children" but this is only because parents are becoming lazy and the proof is right there in the fact that they think these safeguards are needed.<br /><br />I worry more about people that agree with People like Kirk then parents that keep porn in reach of a teen really. I think our country needs to pull our collective head from our @$$ and start actually being parents to the kids again. Maybe that will solve things Hmmm? My point is that this does nothing the parents that have kids that are lying to get in a game like this probably already dont give a flying turd what their kids are doing, and this just pushes the kids to want to try it more because they know they arnt supposed to. <br /><br />Removing it from schools and libraries like i said is Absurd. If these places ran like they were supposed to the computers would be policed and they would be asked to leave the premises (library wise) and as i said in most schools you cant download and install your own stuff let alone connect it properly without raising alarm or circumventing the system in place. So get off it Kirk this is a bunch of hogwash your using for reelection and its the same horse crap you try and feed to people constantly. <br /><br />There is no real danger here short of distraction in school.

[hyperdyne]

excuse me!! gee this is ecommerce. a golden window at that! i make 3 dollars a day.. unattended! i wish my kids had time to use this TOOL instead of playing there games.. it would mean id never have to pay there lunch money! shame on you for forcing people to learn useless information when people learn FASTER on there own!

[celticbrewer]

linadragon, this is more about liability than anything. I remember when a teacher in my state accidentally brought up a porn site during a class. Parents, of course, freaked out. When I was in college, they blocked certain sites in certain places because someone might offend anyone that was passing by or sitting next to someone.<br />Second Life is a big enough threat to block. Besides, it really doesn't have much value for schools and libraries. Conferencing can be done better with other methods. Yes, I agree that the congressman is just getting his name out there, but he's still right. It has nothing to do with morals and government-parenting as it does with all the whiners out there ready to sue schools and government if these blocks aren't put into place. <br />Obivously, kids can't be trusted to put in their correct age when they know registering as 18+ will get them access to the naughty bits. I did it all the time. And yes, I'm sure most kids can find a way to bypass any filters, but at that point- the liability is now on them.

[cintirose]

I work in a Public Library with Internet access-- the county makes us block certain things but we can't block everything. What I want to know is where are the parents when the kids are at the library? Librarians can not and should not have to act as parents when the actual parents won't!

[DinoDiener]

I doubt that a school or library wound have the computer resources to run Second Life. The power and graphics requirements are significant and many cards are incompatible. That said, SL is a program that must be downloaded and installed. Would not a network admin need to do that? <br />Second life is not a website you can just go to except for your account page.<br />This is a false issue.<br />As a Kid AV I find Second Life to be a very fun place with no need to frequent "Adult" slurls.<br />Age Verified by SL.<br />Oh, check out kids5b. It is great. The sl5b is great too.

[benjaminstraight]

benjamin straight writes: Let's live in reality.

[clem_cowsie]

Any site that involves user-to-user conversing is dangerous if you're going to talk like that. Why not block them all? Better yet, outlaw the creation of such websites. Let the entire world hide under rocks, since they can't share ideas as efficiently as they could if there was the Internet. Talking to other people is hazardous, since they could be creepy stalkers anyways!<br />Instead of running around screaming about how kids are putting themselves in danger by lying about their age, and that we should shield them by crippling essentially everyone's freedom, maybe we should be teaching parents how to teach their children about this. Obviously it's difficult to do so, but it's better than taking away bits of our freedom. Like Benjamin Franklin once said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."