Tangled Mind

Second Life 'child abuse' claim

I agree that the exchange of 'real' (as opposed to virtual) pornography is criminal and immoral: but I'm less definite on the criminality of virtual abuse and virtual pornography -- "so called "age play" groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children", in the words of the feature.

Is virtual crime victimless? Does it harm others? Is it a safety-valve? or preferable to people committing (or planning) those crimes in real life?

There are a great many things that are illegal in reality and legal (even favoured) in game-worlds: mass murder, theft, reckless driving, cruelty to animals, slave-trading, prostitution. I am thinking about what makes virtual pornography a real-world crime.

A rather patronising article on the BBC Magazine about the rise of MySpace. ("Perhaps the biggest headache anyone with a couple of hundred mates needs to get their head around is how to manage their Christmas card list.") But what they're describing doesn't seem much different to LiveJournal or any of the less formal, more community-based blogging sites.

So ... tell me about MySpace. Why should I know about it? And has the bloke from the Beeb missed the point?