The Register – 21st February 2007:
The Dutch prosecutor’s office is considering legal actions to test the law against child porn in the popular virtual game Second Life. With no clear litigation, it is difficult to act against perpetrators.
Kitty Nooij, who is in charge of the sex offences portfolio at the prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands, told Dutch news show Netwerk that she will try to bring cases to court so precedents can be set.
Linden Lab’s Second Life is an online digital world with almost three million “residents” claimed by the company. Some areas of Second Life allow adult members to have virtual sex with others who pretend to be children.
Experts, such as psychologist Jos Buschman of the Van Mesdag clinic in Groningen, say Second Life is “by definition a school for paedophiles”, despite the fact that adult members like to roleplay as children. Second Life requires all players to be adults.
Virtual child pornography has been a criminal offence in the Netherlands since 2002. However, there is no litigation related to virtual sex with virtual children. Today, at least four political parties in the Netherlands demanded a ban on virtual child porn roleplay.
The age of consent in the Netherlands is 16. So a guy could legally have sex with a 16 year old cheerleader and pretend she’s only 15, 12, 8, or whatever. That’s perfectly legal. But if two 60 year olds create child-like avatars and let those avatars have virtual sex, so fantasy is suddenly a crime? I just don’t get it.
This is just stupid. There are no children involved. Where is the crime?
Improbus the thought police are here now so watch what your thinking.
after reading todays blog… i think there are many things i don’t get… it’s a mad, mad, and sometimes sad world out there….
I’d say the sad lives these individuals lead is enough punishment.
This is similar in spirit to many US state laws. For example, “It’s a felony in Texas to solicit a minor for sex over the Internet—even if the suspect never leaves his house and never actually attempts to meet the minor. ” This is true in many states even if the “minor” involved is an adult police officer involved in the investigation. This is still technically a felony even if none of the people involved is under 18 years of age and neither party leaves their computer chair.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12584702/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10912603/
If the bytes on one computer are having sex with the underage bytes on another computer, shouldn’t they just impound the computers and withhold electricity for 20 years? Or would that be cruel and unusual punishment for a computer?
Maybe they’ve been drinking too much Heineken in the prosecutor’s office during business hours. This could put a serious damper on the booming market for Catholic schoolgirl outfits. Did anyone really believe there were that many Catholic schoolgirls?
5. “This is true in many states even if the “minor” involved is an adult police officer involved in the investigation.”
I agree with you, that is bad law. To analogize, to bust a party store or bar for selling alcohol to teens, the police need to use a person who is actually under the drinking age. The police cannot merely pretend to be under the age when they set up their sting. The problem of course is making real 12 year old girls be a part of a highly sexualized sting operation.
However, at least in that law the intent of the defendant is to have real sex with real underage girls. There isn’t even such an intent in Second Life. I’ve heard of victimless crimes, but this is the first crimeless crime I’ve ever seen.
I’ll have to agree, this borders on thought policing. I mean, there’s something to be said for not even pretending to do something society finds appalling, but I’m not sure how far that should go.
#7, I uncomfortably agree with you. I think though that with most cyber sex involving a minor, the predator (or whatever you wish to call the adult) reasonable assumes that the other party is a minor. That shows intent and an attempt to solicit sex with a minor.
In Second Life everyone knows that this is role playing. That is where it treads on dangerous ground.
“Virtual child pornography has been a criminal offence in the Netherlands since 2002.”
How in the world do you put an age on a virtual cartoon or drawing? How can you look at a computer-generated character and say, “I see no pubic hair–they must be underage…”? Hell, why don’t we make it illegal to play first-person shooters! It’s virtual killing!
#1 & #10
That’s because conservative politicians are in charge right now in the Netherlands and we all know how conservative politicians “like” how their constituents achieve an orgasm.
Okay, editors, those “in-the’know”, please erase any evidence of my IP or world from your side… I’m not a predator, I just don’t want the publicity.
Here we go:
In 1974, at the age of 4, I entered the Minnesota (USA) public school system. I walked to school every day, and passed a local department store. Many of us were dumpster divers, as we acquired a lot of cool trash through our activities: toys, games, porn, etc. We stored our ill-gotten porn on the store’s premises, where no adult would think to look.
By the ages of 5-6, I had seen it all. I’m not just talking about weenies and muffins, I’m talking S&M, she-males, animal stuff, etc. Needless to say, my ‘innocence’ was a thing of the past before 2nd grade. I’m glad I knew all this stuff, it made me understand what a bunch of sick fucks adults are.
So, here we are. The internet throws all this crap in kids’ faces for profit. Sure, it’s intended for adults, but just isn’t screened that well. Also, nobody profited from those of us warped by that early ill-gotten exposure, but they will in the ever-after, now.
Here’s my simpleton question: WHY DIDN’T THE “””””””(dot).XXX””””””” thing pass??? If that wouldn’t have singled out adult domains with XXX just like movies, so everybody could filter them, then I don’t know what could have… .AERO passed, but .XXX didn’t…
Okay, whatever — I’m 37 now. I’ve know, for the past 32 years, that most of humanity is comprised of sick twisted fuckers. Go rape somebody, on-line or off-line. It doesn’t really matter to me, I’m single, and can defend myself — I’m just worried about my friends’ and families’ kids.
However, it isn’t my job to defend them, according to the law. Have a nice rape.