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Pedophile Playground Discovered in 'Second Life' Virtual World

Friday , November 02, 2007

Every lifestyle group has its own place in the virtual world "Second Life" — including, apparently, pedophiles.

Britain's Sky News TV channel on Tuesday uncovered a virtual playground hidden away behind a strip mall in "Second Life" — a playground where little girls who looked about 10 years old offered the Sky reporter's avatar, or virtual representative, a variety of sex acts.

Sky reported the playground, called "Wonderland" in possible reference to an Internet child-porn ring broken up in 1998, to British authorities.

But Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based creator and operator of "Second Life," doesn't plan to take any action for now against the non-age-specific sex playground.

It seems that everyone in Wonderland says they're over 18, despite the much younger-looking avatars of some members.

Role-playing and sex are two common activities on "Second Life," where users frequently select avatars of different genders, races, ages or even species, and then do what adults are prone to do.

Linden Lab is currently testing a system that would verify users' ages before they could enter areas deemed to contain adults-only content in "Second Life."