[Opensim-users] Abuse protection, especially children

[BlueWall Slade]

It is the responsibility of the guardian or supervising adult in charge of
the activity to maintain the safety of the minors using the environment.
Always! Whether it be on the web, in the neighborhood, at the mall. Or, in
virtual worlds. It's pretty much as simple as that. The problems arise when
the parent, guardian  or supervising adult is lax in their duties.


Thanks!
BlueWall

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Mark Dubin <mark at 3demb.com> wrote:

> 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
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