15 December, 2010

eight legs to the wall, hit the gas, kill 'em all

Stupidity from the Terms of Service I'm now able to see:

2. ELIGIBILITY TO USE SECOND LIFE

2.1 Age Requirements for Second Life.

By accepting this Agreement in connection with an Account, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age and you have the legal authority to enter into this Agreement. If you are at least 13 years of age and less than 18 years of age, you represent that (i) your parent or legal guardian has consented to your having an Account in Second Life, participating in the Service, and providing your personal information in connection with the Service; and (ii) your parent or legal guardian has read and accepted this Agreement on your behalf. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use Second Life. There are lots of other great virtual world services for you. Talk to your parents about which services are appropriate for you.

2.2 Age Requirements for Teen Second Life.

(i) Users 13 to 15. If you are at least 13 years of age but less than 16 years of age, you may only use the Service if you are affiliated with a Sponsoring Organization, and your Account in Second Life is referred to as an “Affiliated Account.” A “Sponsoring Organization” means a User Organization (as defined in Section 2.4 below) that (i) maintains on the Service a “Teen Estate,” which is Virtual Land and Content that is appropriate for users between 13 and 16 and complies with the General Maturity Rating; (ii) has been approved by Linden Lab, in our sole discretion, to register Affiliated Accounts using our "Registration API" tool; (iii) limits the access of all Affiliated Accounts of users between 13 and 16 to the Sponsoring Organization’s Teen Estate; and (iv) requires all visitors to the Teen Estate to comply with the General Maturity Rating and any other rules that the Sponsoring Organization may impose as long as they are consistent with this Agreement. By accepting this Agreement in connection with an Affiliated Account, you represent that in addition to the representations of section 2.1, you are at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, you agree that you will at all times comply with your Sponsoring Organization’s rules for the Teen Estate, and you acknowledge that you are only permitted to access your Sponsoring Organization’s Teen Estate and no other areas of the Service.

(ii) Users 16 and 17. If you are at least 16 years of age but less than 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction, if it is greater), then you may only access areas of the Service rated General in accordance with our Maturity Ratings. If you have used the Service under an Affiliated Account, you may continue to access your Sponsoring Organization’s Teen Estate, provided that the Sponsoring Organization permits you to continue such access upon reaching the age of 16.
For users 13 through 17 years of age, we have created Teen Safety Guidelines that we suggest you review with your parents.
(iii) Users 18 and Over. If you are at least 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction, if it is greater), then you may access areas of the service that are rated General, as well as Moderate and Adult, as provided in our Maturity Ratings and Section 2.3 below.

Your Accounts may be supsended or terminated immediately without warning or any refund or other compensation if we believe that you are under 13 years of age, if we believe you are under 18 years of age and you represent yourself as 18 or older, or if we believe you are over 18 and represent yourself as under 18.

2.3 Age Verification for Adult Only Second Life.

In order to access Second Life regions or listings designated as "Adult Only" Content, which Content may be explicitly sexual, intensely violent or otherwise designated as Adult under our Maturity Ratings ("Adult Only Content"), you affirm that you are at least 18 years of age, or the age of legal majority where you reside if that jurisdiction has an older age of majority. You further agree that as a condition to accessing Adult Only Second Life, you will submit to account verification as required by Linden Lab, and provide only true and accurate identification documentation to Linden Lab or its third party service providers to verify your age. You further acknowledge that you will comply with our Maturity Ratings, and conduct any activities we have defined as Adult only within regions designated as Adult.

2.4 Requirements for Corporate Users and Sponsoring Organizations.

If you are using the Service on behalf of a company, organization or other legal entity (collectively, "User Organization"), you represent and warrant that you are an employee of that User Organization or other person authorized to do so. If you are a Sponsoring Organization, you agree that (i) you will maintain your Teen Estate in compliance with the General Maturity Rating; (ii) you will comply with the the API Terms of Use; (iii) you will limit the access of Affiliated Accounts of users between 13 and 16 to your Teen Estate; (iv) you are solely responsible for all Content and activities that take place on your Teen Estate, and (iv) you will comply with such guidelines as Linden Lab may issue from time to time with respect to Teen Estates.

Then, halfway down the long list, this:

8.2 You will not post or transmit prohibited Content, including any Content that is illegal, harassing or violates any person's rights.

You agree that you will not:

(i) Post, display or transmit Content that violates any law, or the rights of any third party including without limitation Intellectual Property Rights;

(ii) Impersonate any person or entity without their consent, or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation, or if you are an adult, impersonate a minor for the purpose of interacting with a minor using the Service;

(iii) Stalk, harass, or engage in any sexual, suggestive, lewd, lascivious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct with minors on the Service;

(iv) Post, display or transmit any material, object or text that encourages, represents, or facilitates sexual "age play," i.e., using child-like avatars in a sexualized manner. You may review our full Age Play Policy here;
Incidents under sections (iii) and (iv) above are grounds for immediate termination. You understand and agree that we may report any and all such incidents -- and any and all of your corresponding personal information -- to any authorities we deem appropriate, whether or not it in and of itself violates the law of your (or any) jurisdiction.
(v) Post, display or transmit Content that is harmful, threatening or harassing, defamatory, libelous, false, inaccurate, misleading, or invades another person's privacy;

(vi) Post, display or transmit Content that is obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

(vii) Operate or profit from a "game of chance" In Second Life. For more information please see our Gambling Policy;

(viii) Operate or profit from a virtual "bank" In Second Life. For more information please see our Banking Policy; or

(ix) Post, display or transmit any Content or conduct or host any activity that is explicitly sexual, intensely violent or otherwise designated as Adult under our Maturity ratings, except as set forth in those ratings.

Any violation by you of the terms of this Section may result in immediate suspension or termination of your Accounts without any refund or other compensation.

Near as I can figure, those are the main alterations.

Today, the game changes, people. Forget January 2011: as of today, the current Second Life Terms of Service allow teens to enter the grid. They may not do so; Second Life may still be working out all the bells and whistles for restricted accounts. But as of today, they have the option.

Be careful out there.

4 comments:

Serenity Semple said...

Wow. @ @ Info overload there. The whole teen thing is just a giant mess, I SERIOUSLY doubt any teen is going to read that and be all like 'Oh well I guess I shouldn't use SL since I don't fall under these requirements.' I mean heck I think most of us didn't even read the new TOS, by us I mean regular users. It would be nice if they specifically made a post on their blog about major changes to TOS or something to maybe help people know instead of tossing it out there and just BAM possible ban. I just keep looking back at the teen info and thinking it as: ' if you're under this height, don't ride. But if you're under this height and were in a war and representing a company, you can ride.' Not exactly but I think you get my drift. *Sigh* Ah Emi, the beginning of the end slowly reaches it's giant claw and ever so slowly is clutching this game. XD

Emilly Orr said...

It would be very nice if they made a post on their blog, or even better, use that log-in service they're so proud of--Hey, we changed something--go look here (and 'here' would be an active link)--to find out about our new SL ToS!

Instead, if we're using an official viewer, most of us wait just long enough for the ToS to clear before clicking "I accept these changes"--it's still consent, but most people really don't slog through legalese if they can help it.

And if we're not on an official viewer, for some of us, we can't see the ToS anyway, and most of us are just pissed off at the whole process, and don't read through the changes because we're irked with the Labs, or the coders for our viewers, or--most likely--both.

Rhianon Jameson said...

They had me confused with the first paragraph. I didn't think 13 year olds were able to enter into legal agreements. As I'm not 13, and I'm not responsible for any young lads or lasses, I'm not bothered personally by it, but it strikes me as odd.

Emilly Orr said...

That is, unfortunately, badly worded on their part, and quite possibly legally unenforceable--but then, they did lay off Marty Linden, their head of legal counsel. Do they even have a lawyer on staff still?

At any rate, if what they mean is, 'thirteen and can properly comprehend things', then yes, they're allowed print that along with the restrictions--having talked to said parents/legal guardians, acquired full consent to use SL from parents/legal guardians, having provided true and accurate personal information, and that said parents/guardians have read and understand the terms of service.

Of course, that's not what they said, is it?

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...