June 4, 2007
A watchdog organization in France has placed the popular MMO Second Life in its crosshairs.Parent-teacher group Familles de France (FdF) is apparently suing Linden Lab, the operator of Second Life, seeking to block minors from signing up for the game. The group claims that there are:
...pornographic photos and videos in free access [where] users can mimick sexual acts, going as far as rape scenes, bondage, zoophilia and scatophilia...
As reported by French newspaper Liberation.fr (Google translation) ten ISPs have been included in the suit as well on the basis that they provide French players access to the San Francisco-based SL.
GamePolitics regular Soldat Louis said of FdF in a message to GP:
In France, they're as known and hated as Jack Thompson since 1999, when they launched a crusade against violent video games. It was important enough to get support from a part of French mainstream media, and it even forced retailers to remove some violent games from their stores for a short time.
...most French gaming sites reported this [Second Life] news, and it provokes as [much] hilarity as anger, because here, Familles de France is despised and hated with passion (and I'm not sure this hatred is totally justified).
Soldat Louis has posted additional background on FdF in the GP Forums. An English language version of French site Ligue ODEBI writes:
The League recalls to the members of “Families of France” that, as parents, they should take responsibility for their children’s internet use, instead of asking french judges to prohibit activities they have to monitor.
The League is not astonished that... “Families of France” has launched that attack just after Nicolas Sarkozy was elected: the moralizing offensive already began before the french presidential election...
A court hearing is scheduled on June 18th.
GP: Many thanks to Soldat Louis, who regularly informs us of game-political news from Europe... Finally, we've added FdF to our listing of watchdog organizations (lower right sidebar).
Comments
The objection is that Familles de France shouldn't be listed to watchdog organizations. They don't deserve it at all. Their job as a watchdog is really too limited and too sporadic, especially if you compare them to Parent Television Council or Common Sense Media. Plus, they lost a lot of influence and credibility over the years.
The precision is that "Soldat Louis" is originally a French rock band (their site is here : http://www.soldatlouis.com/ ) and also one of my favourite bands. It's also the nickname of the lead singer. I chose it as a tribute to them, but I'm not him, and I'm not affiliated to them in any way. It seems evident, but I needed to precise it.
Too bad these extremist groups don't realize, you're more likely to eat a cow one forkful at a time, rather than trying to swallow it a limb at once. And you're more likely to get public support, too. Look at the changes the ACLU have done, for example. If you were to go back before their forming and say that a group would change the very baseline function of society in the USA, often dumbing things down to a primordial level, you would have been laughed at. And now, look at everything they've caused, for good or bad(depending on your personal viewpoint).
One step at a time, you crazed massacre/porn chasers. You'll get public support that way!
Perhaps Familles de France is a quite bit right, I think children shouldn't be exposed to these pornographic materials, but I don't think that they should tell the judges to ban the game just because of that.
Do these people not research this stuff before suing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Second_Life
They have Teen Second Life? Sheesh, I didn't know that in the first place. I bet Teen Second Life is all about bashing up people (or monsters?) and cheating people just in real life? Lol...
BTW, thank you for posting here with clarification. It's good to hear about gaming and politics from an international point of view.
Anyway, I don't see the Familles de France company have any relations with Jack Thompson. I will definitely faint if I ever heard the news of this nincompoop working with many countries.
In fact, FdF used to be known in conservative circles as a parental organization. In the early 90's, their main target was the Minitel (a French mediocre equivalent of Compuserve). And after their 1999 campaign against violent video games, every French gamer knew about them.
But they lost most of their audience and credibility because of their new president. And although I said they're as known and hated as Jack Thompson in French gaming community, contrary to Thompson they're unknown outside France. And their involvement in video games is sporadic. They launch something, and then we don't hear about them for months.
"The only way for a teen to get on the adult servers is for them to lie about their age and break the terms and services every time they log on."
Of course, just like in some of the adult sites that requests you to input your year of birth, even children can lie about it and gets into sites without a scratch. But then again, teens of course love to indulge in sex and violence, of course I know, they LOOOVE to tell everyone in school that they have watched sex movies all the time.
@ Soldatlouis
I know nothing about French law, so do you think this law-suit actually has a chance? Or is there a French equivalent of the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech/Media/Religion/Expression) or some other law that would protect them?
@ JOLeske and Clyde Wyman
But we all know that teens are completely defenseless, honest little angels that don't indulge any anything that might be wrong or immoral.
/sarcasm
Be careful there, not all teens are completely defenseless, they are most violent, evil and insincere people I ever seen. Just like the South Korean serial killer in the VTech massacre.
Anyway, "thanks" a lot for your sacarsm though.
In theory, freedom of speech is guaranteed by French constitution, but there is no equivalent of the First Amendment. And there are some laws that could limit drastically freedom of speech. For example, there is a law voted on july 16th, 1949, that created a censorship commission on publications marketed to children and teenagers. It was voted due to public outrcry against comic books, and indeed, it was created to eradicate them. In practice, however, this law has rarely been applied, and it couldn't be applied nowadays.
You may soon be required numbers from drivers licenses, birth certificates, or even parts of your SIN
As of now, a teenager can easily access the adult version if they simply supply a fake age, but not for much longer.
Anyhow, I don't even play 2nd Life but heard it's pretty popular so it would be a shame if this lawsuit goes too far. And same as for the issue of Mature games ending in children's hands... Parents should pay more attention to what their kids play/read/listen to instead of leaving them in front of a PC/TV/Console as a 21st century nanny. Otherwise, think "condoms" people...
Peace.
Let's hope that our generation doesn't pull the same censorship attempts on the next new media.
@ Soldatlouis
Thanks for the information! I take it that the comic book law you mention specifies comics then. Correct? If so, is there any law that might be more relevant? I only ask out of perverse curiosity.
SIN? Pardon my noobness but what's that?
Was it really 50 years ago that the pelvic gyrations of Elvis Presley were condemned as being obscene, and too much for television?
Please, please, PLEASE do not lump me in with the other morons my age. As my brother (kurisu7885) can attest, I've never been in a fight (violence), have yet to burn a kitten at the stake for whitchcraft (evil) or be regularly insincere unless I'm being sarcastic. Actually, I'm quite mature for my age.
Enjoy a video some idiot it my 6th hour filmed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4kztdo9b6A
@Zeloth Yes, I can attest to that. He's never started any fights, only finished them, rather effectively.
In Canada (and maybe some other arts of the world) SIN stands for Social Insurance Number, which is essentially the same as Social Security Number.
I think he was being sarcastic too, just like the guy who he was responding too.
Imagine my surprise when I first found "furries" on mIRC back in the mid to late 90's. "rape scenes, bondage, zoophilia and scatophilia," sounds pretty tame, compared to what those guys were up to.
Furries are pretty harmless, although judging from your reaction I'm guessing you wandered into something that included ageplay ("babyfur") or people in fursuits or both.
Furry porn is pretty far into the DO NOT WANT section of my brain, but at least it's consensual, as are BDSM scenarios and fetishes that involve bodily functions I can't say the same for people who rape animals and pretend they have a meaningful relationship.
Actually that's not true. The proposed changes in SL would mean that in order to access *Adult* content (self-identified by the parcel owner) you'd have to go through age verification. It is not being suggested at this time that everyone has to do it. Anyone could still create a free account and access a lot of SL (and whatever hasn't been properly tagged as Adult).
Personally, I think it's a huge mess. Once you start on the censorship track, you're committed to censorship. The whole point of the game was that this is a virtual world and anything was supposed to be possible. If you can dream it, you can make it happen.
Well, now they're saying you can only make it happen if it's x, y and z. What's next? Prohibiting gays? Prohibiting BDSM? Prohibiting public sex?
It's a very slippery slope and I'm considering leaving SL altogether over it. I don't want anything in my life censored. I'm not a child.
Gira Bryant (in SL)
http://www.digitalunrestcomic.com/index.php
Certainly made my day.
You're off be on and a half lives there.
This is Second Life, not Half Life.
Relax, my friend. No need to get so jumpy about it, after all I don't care what your age is because we never even met personally before. Anyway, how did your friend make such a great video? A boxing video. Lol? Just saw a bus fight video too.
This only shows one thing, Jack Thompson has the same stupidity level as the teenagers, after all, one will never attack it's own kind unless necessary.
One question... are you putting Jack Thompsons intellect and integrity in the same group as teenagers and adolescents? that is highly offensive, as J.T. is one of the most moronic and least thinking creature to have the right to call himself a human being in existance. And as for "One will never attack it's own kind unless neccesary", thats just funny.