Second Life banned in Australia ?
Jul 1st, 2009 | By Guy | Category: Second Life, Virtual WorldsA report from the Inquisitr site has linked the government’s content bans for online games to a potential banning of Second Life in Australia. The logic certainly holds up if interpreted that a) Second Life is an online game (which many people would dispute, setting virtual worlds apart from online games as there isn’t a game to play per se) and b) that the government is actually seeking to have these banned outright.
In the 1950s the Australian government banned a long list of book titles that it deemed unsuitable for sensitive Australian audiences. Not only were the books banned, but the existence of the list itself was kept secret. To this day, I have met few Australians who know that this was the case.
Of course it was easy to without information like this in the 1950s when the books were smuggled into the country one by one and had no rapid means of duplication and disemination once they arrived.
As it stands, the governement has not named titles yet, so the inclusion of any specific game or virtual world is supposition, however if Second Life, World of Warcraft or any other fun games that we play are banned in this internet age, there will be a way around and those who want to play, will play. The Australian government will look archaic as they try to build fences to keep out water.
Statement from Linden Lab received this morning:
Linden Lab has received no indications from the Australian government that it plans to block Second Life and will keep our community apprised of any developments on that front. In the meantime, we want to assure Australian Residents that Second Life remains accessible and functioning in your region.
Australia has and will continue to be an important market for Linden Lab, and we’re committed to providing the best possible Second Life experience for the users in that market. Some of the most exciting uses of Second Life have come out of Australia, a diverse community of Residents that includes major universities, large enterprises and many thousands of consumers, who spend hundreds of thousands of hours inworld each month.
I concur that Second Life is not a game - it’s a virtual environment that can be used for any number of applications, including gaming.
There are already a number of resources springing up over the Internet advising Australians how they will be able to access websites/games/virtual environments. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation is among them, stating that that they will help Australians circumvent such filters/censorship unless the Government outlaw such circumvention. Find more on their main site or campaign websites:
Game Censorship Information: http://www.efa.org.au/category/censorship/r18/
No Clean Feed Campaign: http://nocleanfeed.com/
R18+ Game Campaign: http://r18games.com/
EFA Main website: http://www.efa.org.au/
Not quite, not yet. It\’s all conjecture and hearsay at the moment. The only system the government currently has for regulating content online is a complaints based and investigation mechanism via Schedule 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. Material that is deemed to be MA 15+ (based on the classification guidelines [http://www.classification.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/ClassificationinAustralia_Legislation_Guidelines_Guidelines] and which is not \