Stretching the comparison a bit, but it is the simple truth that the mere process of trying to create utopia kills the foundation of it. One nation wants a safe cosy world, manageable to their standards and without “terrorists”. So far, the process has not made the world safer, just created more “terrorists”.

This is not about shagging teenagers or someone’s moral standards. Personally, I think that “We need to make the world safe for our kids, I condemn age-play, etc” are very lame excuses. Of course I agree about not abusing children.
But when I was 13, me and my chums had a stack of porn mags hidden in our hideout. That’s what normal teenage boys in our contemporary society do, even in suburbia Disneyland, like it or not. If you “shield” them from the Immoralities of the world, they will seek it out in other ways.

The only, whole and sole reason for this is the legal protection of LL’s heinie. No reason to pretend anything else and no reason to use “The Safety Of Our Children [moralTM]” as a hostage of reasons.
And that reason is very understandable.

Since that’s a daunting task — one that I very well believe to be impossible; in fact, only parents are entrusted with the task of controlling their children, anybody else will ultimately fail — there is a simple way out for parents: discard themselves of the sacred task of keeping their own children under strict surveillance and sue companies (or the Government) instead to “fail to provide” a “safe environment”.

At the end, these lawsuits tend to get a friendly judge’s ear, and “trespassing” companies will be forced to shut down. Shut enough of them down, and the world becomes Disneyland — safe for children again. So this is what our politically correct world is aiming for: a world where parents can neglect their task as caretakers for their children, and an utopia where children can wander around the world in safety.

Now, I’m pretty much disgusted about any attempts to create utopias, since, by definition, they will always fail. If they don’t, the mere process of building an utopia will simply discard acquired rights, liberties and freedoms, in order to create this “utopia-of-my-dreams”. Put into another words: create a rosy Disneyland, where there is no crime, no drugs, no violence, and no sex, and we’ll all live in a “happier” world with our children roaming freely around. So, anything that has crime, drugs, violence or sex has to be hunted down, shut down, destroyed, obliterated.

Well, the first lawsuits have been filed against Linden Lab. What should they do? They know very well that there is no “safe” way to make sure that children don’t enter Second Life, except for one: charging parents for their neglect in keeping their children safe. Sadly, in this politically correct world of ours, it’s the parents that file lawsuits against corporations, and not the contrary.

So, Linden Lab’s choice was quite simple: becoming Virtual Disneyland or, well, getting insurance against lawsuits. That’s what they bought. And it was about time, too.

I might have had some qualms about the way Integrity does business, but one thing is quite clear for me. Their contract with Linden Lab is rock-solid. They have far better lawyers and enough funds to fight whatever battle they wish in court. They must really be annoying a lot of people right now, as lawsuits bounce off adult sites and keep them intact. Integrity is, like Veyron so very well wrote, building a safe haven for companies that wish to provide adult entertainment and refuse to get Disneyfied. I’m currently reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, one of many books dealing with safe havens for data and money in this lawsuit-happy world. Somehow all these things slowly start to make some sense; when reading them in a book, you tend to shrug them off saying “oh well, that’s science fiction, and, anyway, only criminals really need protection”.

Apparently, avatars roaming around a politically incorrect world are criminals, too. And this is worrying. No matter what my personal feelings towards Integrity or their CEO are, or what I think that LL is doing, the issue here is: I really don’t want a Disneyfication of Second Life, and I really really wish that LL is able to survive all lawsuits brought against them…

At this very moment SL is really like Disneyland comparing to google. Just turn off your SafeSearch and type “nasty sex” and choose images. No credit card needed. Change your type string and you might see things you, as an adult which is frequent in SL’s nasty clubs, will find discusting. Still no credit card needed. So little Tommy can come to SL’s escorts safely. Actually, they will be either more educative or much less interesting than the rest of the internet.