Today's iteration on the cyberspace and deviant sexuality meme: grown-ups pretending to be kids for sexual play in Second Life, according to one report. Yet another twist on the old "on the internet, no one knows you're a dog" line. This is a different approach to the established deviant sex fears, which center on either content (pornography) or teen behavior. Instead we see adult behavior, aimed at pedophilic content.
One more spin: such controversies reveal two modes of community media construction. One is the universal drive to capture the full range of life in one entity. This is opposed by the narrow focus of themed, intentional, or utopian projects. SL has a thematic structure, yes, but is very broad in its inclusivity. In contrast we've seen splinter projects playing off of such universally-themed virtual environments. like Sociolotron for MMOGs and Xianz for social networks,
I agree with Tony Walsh's take on this - watch for moral panics in the media. And wait for this sort of thing to accrete to political arguments about computer gaming.
(via Clickable Culture)
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