Quick question for you, in regards the image below,is it illegal? Do you think that it is enough to put me in jail? If so, for how long?
So the last week saw myself hang out with some friends and we all regressed back to our teenage years, and of course in Second Life it’s a simple matter of tweaking the avatar back to when I was younger. And for the benefit of anyone reading, my regular body is on th eleft, while how I looked when I was 18 is on the right (I used some of my pictures from University to guide my ). The problem is the UK has this (ahem) handy little law called The Protection of Children Act, amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. In short, it makes it an offence to produce distribute , show or promote pseudo-pictures (ie computer graphics that appear to be pictures).
By creating an avatar that appears under 18 in Second Life, you’re sailing close to the wind if you’re in the UK, simply because using the client, you are aking the picture. Maybe you run a hug or a kiss animation from Abranimations on another Avatar. Congratulations you’ve jsut broken the Child Pornogrpahy laws in the UK, and you
If I were a US citizen, simulated child pornography is allowed under the First Amendment.
So here’s the rub. It’s illegal in the UK, and my PC is in the UK, so I could be looking at jail time.. But it’s on an American server, by an American company, and the people that I’m cuddling will carry on with their lives. It may well be hypothetical (for the moment), but as Second Life (and virtual worlds in general) continue to grow, there are going to be some sticky legal cases…
April 2, 2007 at 5:13 pm |
[...] I’ve already touched on this area before, but if this law goes though (and which consultation from the Labour Governmnet hasn’t gone through unchanged?). The argument that you could have put forward – that SL screens are a cartoon, or cgi, and not pseudo-pictures, would be removed from any defense in the United Kingdom. Play SL, have an avatar which appear to be a child perform something that could be percieved to be indecent (say, hugging someone who appears to look older) and bingo – you’ve broken the indecency laws, created the image on your computer, and you can be charged with the delights of HMP Holloway. [...]