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Age Verification FAQ
This
article answers some frequently asked questions about age verification and its
use in Second Life.
Age verification is a new feature that is now available in a beta release.
It’s a means of verifying that you are an adult in real life by matching
information you provide against public records. While it’s in beta, we ask
that you be patient as we continue to improve the feature to better meet your
needs. Any issues you have should be directed to the Second
Life Support Portal.
While not foolproof, age verification can provide an additional layer of
trust for inworld businesses and Residents. It also helps ensure that minors
can't gain access to inappropriate adult, mature content in Second Life.
The growing popularity of Second Life gives rise to the need to add measures
of security so that Second Life remains a safe environment for all Residents.
We also want to make sure that Residents have the tools they need to
interact with the community in a way that works for them. In particular, many
Residents who may wish to visit parcels with mature content desire some measure
of confidence that minors will not be in those areas.
Anyone wishing to enter land for which Residents and businesses have limited
access to only those Residents who are verified adults. It's just like going
into a bar: you need to prove your age.
Exact documents may vary depending on your country of residence, but may
include:
| Passport |
| Driver’s license |
| National ID number |
| Social security number |
No. This is completely voluntary. Becoming age-verified permits you to enter
land in Second Life in which the landowner has limited access to only those who
are verified adults. Residents who choose not to age-verify and do not visit
land that requires age-verification should not see any difference in their
Second Life experience.
Residents will provide a few simple details about their identity –-
generally, name, date of birth, and address. Additionally, Residents will be
asked to provide specific identifying information, such as a driver’s license
number, passport or national ID card number, or the last four digits of a social
security number (this is dependent on where geographically the Resident is
based). This is then cross-checked against pre-existing databases of public
record to verify that Residents are of legal age. Click here
to get age-verified.
Estate and parcel owners now have the capability to limit access to
age-verified Residents in the Estate and Parcel management tools. (See an
upcoming Knowledge Base article for a detailed description of how to manage land
access). Access to such flagged land will then be limited to age-verified
Residents. Residents who are not age-verified will be blocked and will see a
message about how to get age-verified.
|
|
Note: This
functionality is separate from region and parcel owners’ flagging their
land for mature content. |
The mature content flag
and age-verification feature offer various degrees of notice and protection to
Residents. Flagging parcels for mature content provides notice to adults that
content contained in the area may be objectionable to them. Banning
non-age-verified residents provides an added layer of protection against minors
who may have gained unauthorized access to the world of Second Life.
Absolutely no personal
information that is supplied for age verification is stored or otherwise
retained by Linden Lab or its verification partner Aristotle-Integrity. We keep
only an indicator that tells us whether there was a positive match for the
information you have provided.
Thus, this information
will be used only for the purpose of verifying that a Resident is an adult, and
will not be transferred or retained unless that is required by law, i.e.,
pursuant to a law enforcement investigation and proper legal process.
The exact information
required for age verification may vary from country to country, but the system
works in generally the same way around the world.
Other Residents will not
be able to view your age verification status -- for example, within your
profile. However, if you are on a parcel that requires age verification,
other Residents on that parcel (or having access to your location information)
may be able to deduce that fact.
Estate and parcel owners
would want to limit access to age-verified adults if on any regular or ongoing
basis their land hosts, displays or encourages activities considered suitable
for adults only, in particular, excessive violence or graphic sexual content.
If you are under 18, do NOT
lie about your age or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our system.
Instead, access Teen
Second Life at http://teen.secondlife.com/. Take our word for it -– you'll
like TSL much, much better. Only Residents between the ages of 13 and 17 are
allowed to access Teen Second Life, and there are incredible opportunities there
to interact, learn, and be creative, without any adults to get in your way.
Residents over the age of
18 can choose to not get age-verified if they wish to remain in areas of Second
Life that do not require age verification.
As has occurred in other
cases, we expect our Residents to report such activity. As has always been the
case, Residents are morally, socially and legally responsible for their actions
and content in Second Life. Clearly, any illegal activity or content will
be investigated and appropriate action will be taken. We expect the community to
continue to be effective and responsible in ensuring that Residents are
sufficiently protected from potentially inappropriate and/or offensive content
that is adult in nature.
Linden Lab will not store
any specific, identifying information. Our verification provider will assess the
consistency of the provided information and return a match code; at that point,
a Resident becomes verified. The entire process takes less than two minutes, and
will be available internationally. Our verification provider will only use
information to provide a match code and the only information stored by Linden
Lab will be whether or not there was a match.
During the beta period,
age verification will be free to Residents. No end date for the beta test has
been specified. Once the beta test is over, a fee may be charged for getting
age-verified, though no decision has been made around this.
You will have to verify
each separate avatar that you use, but there are no limits on the number of
avatars you can have verified. This can all be done under the ‘my account’
section of the Second Life Web site.
The data will be
transmitted securely via SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to Integrity. This is a
standard, secure way of transmitting data over the Web, and is used by many
online businesses. For example: if you’ve ever paid a bill online, chances are
it was with SSL in place.
The new age verification
feature is in beta. Please be patient as we continue to improve the feature. We
are committed to making sure the process is as smooth and user-friendly as
possible; however, we understand that this represents a change for Residents. We
have also tested the system extensively with our systems provider,
Aristotle-Integrity, which has delivered this type of technology to other
companies. If you continue to have problems verifying your identity, please go
to the Second Life
Support Portal and submit a ticket (select Special Questions - Basic account or Guest Login from
the Ticket Type
dropdown and choose Manual Age
Verification).
Please attach electronic
(scanned) copies of the following materials:
| Government issued identification that has your date of
birth clearly displayed. This identification should be one or more of the
following: |
 | Birth
Certificate |
| Driver’s
License |
| Passport |
To
attach a file to your ticket:
Please expect manual
verification to take 5-7 working days.
