Congressional pressure applied by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has apparently gotten the attention of Linden Lab, operators of popular MMO Second Life.

GamePolitics readers will recall that Kirk lashed out at Second Life last month, accusing the game of offering inadequate safeguards to prevent underage users from wandering into the seedier corners of the game:

Sites like Second Life offer no protections to keep kids from virtual "rape rooms," brothels, and drug stores. If sites like Second Life won't protect kids from obviously inappropriate content, the Congress will.

A post on the Second Life Children blog indicates that Kirk's charges have already forced some changes on the SL community. Apparently, players who use child avatars will not be allowed to participate officially in the upcoming Second Life 5th Birthday (SL5B) celebration on June 23rd. Blogger Loki Eliot writes:

Last night [we] met with the Linden assigned to the organising of [SL5B]... we have unfortunitly [sic]been told we will not be allowed to represent or promote our community... From what we could understand the reason being that Linden Lab (LL) do not want the world to see our community being sponsored by them in the current climate of hysteria created by a certain US politician. This MAY also mean that Child Avatars will NOT be allowed at the SL5B celebrations.

While shocked and disappointed that LL have decided to exclude us from such a celebration of everything in SL, I ask everyone in the Child Avatar community to stay strong and to not seek retribution. I reluctantly acknowledge that LL want us to lay low until the smoke of Real World Politics blows over or risk the entire world of Second Life being torn down by uneducated Politicians seeking fame and glory.

 

A number of Second Life bloggers are up in arms about the Linden Lab exclusions from SL5B which also extend to a pair of sexually-themed SL communities. Ruslan Laryukov, a commenter on the Daniel Regenbogen blog writes:

I find it doubly regrettable that LL has lumped the kids community - in my experience one of the nicest, smartest and *least* sexual communities within SL - together with gor and bdsm... I simply resent the insinuation that the kid community is centered around sex, because that is just false... Most of us just want to be young and happy again, to release our inner child, to re-experience our youth with the good stuff - and without the bad stuff, which, for some of us was really bad.

GP: I'll confess to not having much knowledge of Second Life in general or the child avatar community in particular. But it's startling to see how quickly a few harsh words from a single congressman can cause changes with the SL community.

CNBC will air Playing to Win at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight.

The show features a look at the video game violence issue, a trip inside EA, a segment on Games for Health and more.

If you miss it, Playing to Win will be repeated on Sunday at 9 p.m.

The griefers of Second Life are known for launching bizarre animated attacks against their in-game victims. Perhaps the most famous form of SL animated mayhem is - no delicate way to write this - the flying penis attack.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that some Russian pranksters apparently adapted the Second Life stunt to disrupt a real-world political meeting in Moscow. From the newspaper report:

The meeting was being address by Russian chess champion turned Kremlin critic, Garry Kasparov, when a remote-controlled flying penis flew through the room... The device - which appeared to be a modified twin-rotor toy helicopter - caused an immediate commotion.

 

A video taken at the event shows the chopper briefly evading capture before a man later identified as a security guard leaps from the stage and swats the device with a left hook... According to the Moscow Times website, the prank was staged by "a couple of pro-Kremlin Young Russia activists" who had launched a "plastic phallus on propellers".

 

Recently, GamePolitics reported on efforts by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) to regulate Second Life over concerns about "toilet sex" and other adult content.

Rep. Kirk's efforts have not gone unnoticed by Second Life satirist General JC Christian, who pens an open letter to the Congressman:

I imagine that with the strength of the economy, our rising standard of living, the Floridization of our climate, and the success we're experiencing in Iraq and Afghanistan, it must be very tough to be a congressman these days. There just aren't a lot of pressing problems left to address. I mean you can't vote for torture and domestic spying every day.

That's why I'm glad you're putting so much effort into solving the problem of toilet sex in Second Life... I spend a lot of time on SL, but it never occurred to me that toilet sex even occurred there. So imagine my surprise when I discovered a monument to toilet sex, the Larry Craig Center, not more than 50 meters from my SL GOP Headquarters...

GP: In case you can't place the name, Larry Craig is the Republican Senator from Idaho who was arrested last year for soliciting sex in an airport men's room.

Recently GamePolitics reported that Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) had called upon the Federal Trade Commission to issue a parental alert regarding online game Second Life.

A local political blog has more, written from a decidely pro-Kirk perspective:

As usual, Congressman Kirk was extremely impressive... He began the interview by talking about his concern over the Internet alternate universe of "Second Life," which Kirk views as an uncontrolled and fertile ground for Internet predators due to insufficient age controls and restrictions.

A lot of people are paying attention to this important issue, and this week I have read numerous pieces, mostly on the blogs, that seem to be either strongly supportive of Kirk's efforts, or strongly against Kirk's stand. Among those who support Kirk are parents...

The ones who are critical of Kirk fall mainly into two camps: first, people who are either big fans of Second Life or similar games, or are somehow involved in the Internet gaming industry (and thus seem to be very defensive against what they perceive as government over-regulation); and, second, the usual anti-Kirk crowd who dismiss this as a political stunt.

Kirk spoke about Second Life on a local TV news program: 

Parents should be worried about one of the fastest growing websites on the planet called Second Life. It's the next level up from MySpace, a fully interactive 3-D experience... I'm worried that they don't properly screen for children...

I contacted Second Life to say maybe we should have some minimum standards here but they responded by sending their $60,000 a year K Street lobbyist to tell me everything was okay...

GP: Who can argue with with protecting children from predators? On the other hand, we have to wonder how much of a problem this really is on Second Life. It's certainly not the most action-oriented game going and would seemingly have little attraction for younger players. Perhaps some of our SL-savvy readers will weigh with their thoughts on this issue.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has called upon the Federal Trade Commission to issue an alert regarding what he says is a potential risk to children who play the popular online game Second Life. 

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Kirk said:

If you ask: Do you know about MySpace? The average parent will say yes. But the average parent doesn't know anything about Second Life...

Sites like Second Life offer no protections to keep kids from virtual "rape rooms," brothels, and drug stores. If sites like Second Life won't protect kids from obviously inappropriate content, the Congress will.

Mt. Prospect, Illinois Mayor Irvana Wilks echoed Kirk's concerns:

This Second Life is a new scare, unchartered territory. It hits home.

GP: We note that Rep. Kirk is currently running for re-election.

UPDATE: News.com has more...

Last week GamePolitics reported on virtual clashes between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters which have been occurring within Second Life.

Today we have an ABC News video report on how a Chicago attorney is using Second Life to support his Obama, his candidate of choice.



Via: Tropophilia 

As the crucial Pennsylvania primary draws near, competition between Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is heating up in real life as well as Second Life's virtual world.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, SL's Obama and Clinton supporters have been griefing one another of late:

The trouble began in March 2007, when Obama supporters held a rally... [other avatars] raided the virtual Obama headquarters. They littered it with T-shirts, posters and signs sporting anti-Obama messages or expressing support for Sen. Clinton and Republican contender Rep. Ron Paul...

During a November rally at the unofficial virtual Clinton beachfront headquarters, supposed Obama supporters hid under a dock and then emerged with signs, shouting via connected headsets and shooting at people... it's unclear if the disruptors were actually from the Obama camp...

Last month, virtual gunmen disrupted a planned Obama march, shooting and pushing people around. That knocked some marchers offline... The Obama group responded by teleporting... to the CNN hub... to hold their rally. But soon images of a Clinton campaign poster and a clip of Sen. Obama next to a photo of Osama bin Laden were flying all over the screen...

Last week, GamePolitics reported on a congressional subcommittee's visit to Second Life.

Last night, on The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart had some fun with the subcommittee hearing video as the assembled U.S. representatives tried to sound knowledgeable about the wonders and/or horrors of virtual worlds.

Stewart, of course, had some funny lines:

Virtual world hearings! It's official. Congress has given up on the actual world...

Look, nobody doubts that terrorists use the Internet. But I don't think that Osama bin Laden is in the basement of his mom's cave, creating jihad-friendly Second Life avatars...

Yesterday's congressional visit to Second Life is chronicled by the Washington Post.

The Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, chaired by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), heard from executives of Linden Lab (publisher of Second Life), IBM and other firms. The meeting was simulcast within Second Life, a Congressional first, according to Markey (seen in SL avatar form at left). WaPo reporter Mike Musgrove writes:

A virtual depiction of the Rayburn House Office Building meeting room was projected on television screens on the wall, so that real-world attendees could take a look at the small virtual crowd that logged on for the event. Attendees logging in from Second Life, meanwhile, could watch the proceedings in a video screen projected on the wall of the virtual room.

The subcommittee had questions about the potential for money laundering and whether children were safe in online worlds. This being Second Life, of course, there was some silliness:

As the politicians and the witnesses discussed the potentials of the online virtual world, the online visitors logged on in Second Life chatted away on the screen in conversations that ranged from the topic at hand and beyond:

"I think senators are superdelegates but not all reps."
"I love flip4mac."
"They should really move the x and the c away from each other on the keyboard." (this following a warning that the video might freeze for "just a sex.")

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) joked that Markey arranged the hearing only to find out how to level up in World of Warcraft. Markey had previously participated in a climate change conference via Second Life.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) fretted about the potential for child pornography and fraud in online games.

A video webcast of the hearing is available at the subcommittee site.

UPDATE: Liz Losh at Virtualpolitik offers her take on the subcommittee hearing and is troubled by some of the comments made by the congressional reps serving on the committee.

When last we saw artist and professor Joseph DeLappe, he was protesting the Iraq war - and infuriating other players - by typing the names of dead U.S. miltary personnel into the multiplayer chat window of America's Army.

While DeLappe continues to visit the Army recruiting game as part of his Dead in Iraq war protest, he has turned to a new virtual project, recreating Gandhi's 1930 Salt March within Second Life. As reported by GQ:

DeLappe will begin reenacting Gandhi's 1930 240-mile Salt March on a treadmill inside New York's Eyebeam gallery—all of which will be reproduced in real time on Second Life.

Yes, the self-parody is (kind of) deliberate. "I'm a spoiled American computer artist paying tribute to Gandhi's life and philosophy by taking on certain aspects of his march, like the walking," he says. "But at the same time, you know, I'm not going anywhere."

DeLappe writes on his blog that he will use a specially converted Nordic Trak treadmill to control his SL avatar:

Over 26 days I will walk throughout the confines of this internet based community to reenact Gandhi’s famous 1930’s march to protest the British salt tax in India... my steps on the treadmill will control the forward movement of my avatar...

While U.S. intelligence operatives are actively developing software to spy on players of online games like World of Warcraft and Second Life, a noted scholar finds the government's cloak-and-dagger approach bizarre.

In a thought-provoking article for Salon, Juan Cole, author and professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, writes:

What's the real game here?

...The notion that wandering around such an imaginary world with a computerized body is dangerous to anyone seems itself cartoonish and calls into question the public hand-wringing by security experts.

It's long been clear that the Bush administration authorized illegal, warrantless wiretaps on the American public, and that major U.S. telecom companies often cooperated... Dick Cheney recently urged making this type of unchecked domestic surveillance permanent.

Cole describes how unimpressed he was by his own recent visit to Second Life:

There were some technical glitches at first in setting up the audio, and the interview was cut short when "Second Life" suddenly announced they were closing down that area.... the week before my appearance, banks in "Second Life" were closed down... The institutional frameworks are to date so unreliable that terrorists likely could not count on a money-launderer...

Cole is also skeptical of using a platform like Second Life as a terrorist training camp:

If the July 7, 2005, bombers of the London Underground could so easily be recruited in a gym in Leeds, why go to all the trouble of creating an avatar?...

One [security] expert... darkly observed that one can find stockpiles of weapons in virtual worlds, without seeming to take note of the fact that those weapons are ... cartoon weapons...

Even the Internet war-game sites... which include "Worlds of Warcraft" -- would probably just make most terrorists overweight and addicted to the Internet...

Finally Cole finds government monitoring of virtual worlds unwarranted and unconstitutional:

The recent alarmism about terrorist activity in virtual worlds seems designed to prey on the fears of the Internet common among the Great Unwired...

Any monitoring by law enforcement of innocuous activity and communication in a virtual world, conducted broadly and without oversight, would be unconstitutional and could invade the privacy of millions of persons.

The Telegraph reports on a touching memorial to British soldiers killed while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A virtual military graveyard in an area of SL known as Tribute Island features memorials to about 250 British war dead. Nik Hewitt of lasting tribute, creator of the memorial, said:

We've replicated individual tribute markers to all the UK soldiers and military personnel who’ve lost their lives in the continuing conflicts...

We have seen avatars - characters created by serving military personnel - wandering through the graves looking for fallen comrades.

A newly-launched video game hopes to raise awareness about one of today's hot-button political issues - immigration.

The much anticipated ICED (I Can End Deportation) is available as a free download for PC and Mac from international human rights organization Breakthrough. A press release details the game and the purpose behind its creation:

Designed to spark dialogue and create awareness of unfair U.S. immigration policies, ICED... teaches players about current immigration laws on detention and deportation...

Players can choose one of five characters to inhabit and live out the day-to-day life of an immigrant youth. The youth are being chased by immigration officers, while making moral decisions and answering myth and fact questions about current immigration policies...

Breakthrough Executive Director Mallika Dutt described the creation of ICED, which is designed primarily for high school and college students:

It's important to engage young people in social issues... Games for change help people to better relate to an issue because they can put themselves into the shoes of a character experiencing injustice.

Close to two million people have been deported and thousands more affected -- many without just cause -- due to unfair immigration policies. When we let the government deny due process and human rights for some people, we're putting all of our freedoms at risk.

As part of its launch day happening, ICED will be featured on Global Kids Island in Teen Second Life at 8:30 PM EST.

A Second Life resident known for biting political commentary has turned his attention to Republican Mike Huckabee.

In a Second Life parody of the former Arkansas governor, JC Christian focused on Huckabee's anti-abortion stand by unveiling the Mike Huckabee Center for the Liberation and Housing of Spermatazoan-Americans. From his "press release":

[JC CHristian] got the idea to name the Center after presidential candidate Mike Huckabee when he heard Huckabee state his support for the Georgia Personhood Amendment and the Human Life Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"I thought if Gov. Huckabee supports granting civil rights to embryo-Americans and to the little 70 cell blastocyst-Americans, then surely he supports the rights of our tiniest citizens, the spermatazoan-Americans..."

The Center is composed of three sections. The first is called "The Liberation Station." It is here where the hard work of liberating Spermatazoan Americans is done. Special materials, including a Sears Catalog and a photo of Rosie Palm, are provided to make the liberation process easier...

As previously reported by GamePolitics, JC Christian has also used Second Life as a platform to lampoon former New York mayor and presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.

In other politically-oriented Second Life news, Illinois congressional candidate Mark Pera (D) held what may be the first virtual political fundraiser on Monday evening. According to a post on DailyKos , about 15 people showed up and $100 was raised.

That's not especially encouraging for future efforts in Second Life...

Residents of the always politically-aware Second Life metaverse have constructed a memorial to assassinated Pakistani political figure Benazir Bhutto.

As reported by Second Life Herald, an in-game memorial service will be held on January 6th. SL Herald interviewed the creator of the Bhutto tribute, Jennette Forager:

When I heard the news of Bhutto's assassination, I felt grateful to have the SL platform to express my feelings of sadness and concern for Pakistan; and indeed, the entire world...

The politics of Pakistan are irrelevant. What is important to me is that I express my sympathy for the  pain and suffering of the Pakistani people and the Bhutto family. Through SL I am able to create an opportunity for all of us to offer them our support and compassion.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) found himself unable to attend a recent United Nations summit on climate change in Bali.

So he sent his Second Life avatar instead.

The Associated Press reports that the virtual Markey, clad in a business suit, addressed the summit while the real Congressman was parked in front a PC at a staffer's Washington, D.C. home:

I believe I am the first member of the U.S. Congress to be introduced by someone with a blue dragon her shoulder... This is my first foray into Second Life, but it won't be my last.

Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said he was unable to make the trip to Bali due to pressing discussions on an energy bill currently before Congress.



The Click Heard Round the World has more.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton wants to know about your gaming habits.

A lengthy list of questions from a Clinton campaign poll has been published on the Huffington Post. Along with the usual inquiries into political views, demographics and the like are a couple of questions which probe the subject's gaming and online activities:

Which of the following have you visited or played online?

Sim City
Second Life
Sims
None of the above
Other
Don’t know

It's interesting that the Clinton poll mentions only three games by name. All are either PC or primarily PC games; would seem to have a higher ratio of female players than the average game; and none of the three feature violence as a main theme. We're not sure that's the reason for their inclusion, simply trying to find a common thread.

There's also a question about Internet usage:

Which activities do you do online most?

Research issues or questions
Use a webcam
Share digital photos
Download music or video
Read or post to blogs
Research products or services
Watch video sites like youtube
Email
Shop
Read the news
Play video games
Instant message
Online banking or bill pay
Use online social networks
Talk on the phone using VOiP

Could virtual pickpockets separate your Second Life avatar from its in-game money, known as Lindens?

Dean Takahashi of the San Jose Mercury-News reports that a pair of white-hat hackers have identified an SL design flaw which allows a player's Lindens to be lifted. That's especially troubling because Lindens can easily be converted into real-world money.

Charles Miller (left) and Dino Dai Zovi discovered the vulnerability by exploiting a known issue with Apple's QuickTime video software. SL uses QuickTime to stream movies in-game. Said Dai Zovi:

It’s not kindergarten work, but this is pretty easy to do.

The hackers say that they could take over any avatar and remove all of its money and property. That represents a major threat to the players who make their living by creating and selling virtual goods within SL.  

CNET's Daniel Terdiman, author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life, told Takahashi:

The president of the Philippines is now an official resident of Second Life.

As reported by Inquirer.net, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (left) debuted her SL persona to coincide with the launch of the Philippine National Innovation Strategy at the National Innovation Summit in Makati.

Macapagal-Arroyo's avatar will reside in IBM's Second Life Innovation Center.

Gabby Dizon, president of developer Flipside Games, said that Macapagal-Arroyo hoped to demonstrate that by joining SL she is a proponent of change and innovation.