[Opensim-users] Abuse protection, especially children

[Mark Dubin]

This is more a philosophical question, than technical, but there may  
be technical approaches to it. A public OpenSim grid allows access to  
people of any age, adult or child. Then, the availability of both  
chat and IM makes the site the equivalent of a public chat-room with  
a private back-channel. This presents a situation in which adult  
predators can approach children, with the attendant dangers. How can  
this concern be approached? Any kind of "public" OpenSim is prone to  
this issue, which will thus need a long-term, broad-based approach. A  
specific example could be a museum.

A significant advantage of having a public museum on an OpenSim grid,  
open to all, is that museums typically are valuable learning assets  
for children. Allowing chat/IM enhances the experience by fostering  
sharing of insights and questions. Thus, totally blocking chat and/or  
IM limits the value of the site. Another approach could be to require  
prior approval for each avatar that has access to the site. However,  
this is impractical in terms of resources needed to accomplish it  
(and difficulty in proving the nature of the requester), except in  
very limited (essentially non-public) situations. Monitoring of all  
the communication on a site is not practical (or even possible).  
Further, attempts by the site owner to monitor or otherwise provide  
security can leave one open to litigation.

A typical, hands-off approach is to provide warnings and do nothing  
more. In the case of children, parents should know what their kids  
are doing and teach them safe internet practices. It is essentially  
analogous to going to a real, bricks-and-mortar museum, or store, or  
public place. Realistically, this may be the best that can be done.  
Or is it? I am interested in hearing ideas from others, either via  
this list or by e-mail to me at <mark at 3demb.com>. If there is  
significant e-mail exchange, I will summarize and post that summary  
here.

Thanks, Mark