History/Adult content

This page compiles Adult Content info at-a-glance so you can easily see the history of what's happened and better understand what's to come.
During 2009, changes to the way adult content is handled in Second Life were made. The main goal of these changes is control over your experience: if you don't want to see adult content, you have that choice. If you do want to see it, provided you're account-verified, you can. The changes include:
# Creating a new region maturity rating of , in addition to the existing and , 
# Changing how the search functions work 
# Requiring "verification" to access the adult regions and search settings, and 
# Updating policy (Terms of Service, Community Standards, Knowledge Base articles, etc.) to go with these changes.
To make these changes required updates to the server software (version 1.26 and later) which hosts grid Regions, and the Viewer software (version 1.23 and later) which runs on your local computer. 
==Adult Content FAQ==
For Frequently asked questions about this subject, please see the related Adult Content FAQ page.
== Timetable ==
# Initial Announcement - 12 Mar 2009
# Release of 1.23 client software - 15 Jun 2009
# New Adult mainland opens for visits - 15 Jun 2009
# Move tickets for Adult Mainland accepted - 29 Jun 2009 10am Pacific Time to 24 July 2009 10am Pacific Time A Zindra Update 3 July 2009
# Email notifications to landowners - Started 26 Aug 2009
# Auction of remaining Adult Mainland regions - Started 8 Sep 2009 Jack Linden Official Blog 03 Sep 2009 
# End of policy transition period - 15 September 2009 Email received 25Aug 2009 
== Region Ratings ==
Previously there were only two ratings for map regions on the SL Main Grid: PG and Mature, and they were open to anyone to visit. Now there is a new category, Adult, which only "verified" accounts with the right settings activated can visit.
After 15 Sep 2009, publicly promoted Adult Content is supposed to be stored either on Regions on the newly built Zindra mainland "continent" or on private Regions having the Adult Region rating. Estate owners can set their region ratings as they choose, and it is expected they will change or create adult rated regions according to the demand for it. 
As of 1 Nov 2009, 1325 private regions were rated Adult, and 348 mainlaind regions (mostly Zindra). Together they represent 5.69% of the 29,409 region total grid area New SL Sims in the past week Tyche Sheperd, 27 Sept 2009. 
=== Zindra Move === 
Previously existing mainland regions will not have their maturity rating changed. Therefore mainland landowners with public adult content will need to either move to the new Zindra continent, which is all adult rated regions, or to Private regions which are rated adult. 
Existing venues which were significantly impacted by these adult changes were given a chance to move to Zindra via a Support Ticket, submitted from 29 Jun 2009 until 24 July 2009. Approximately 850 move tickets were submitted. The remaining land on Zindra started to be auctioned by Linden Lab starting 8 Sep 2009. For those who need to migrate to Zindra this link may be helpful:
* Guide to moving builds from one Region to another
Maps of Zindra as it has developed can be found on the linked page. The most current map can be found on the SLurl Map page. The initial map of Zindra contained 157 regions. Due to high demand, this was significantly increased during 3-10 July 2009. At least 531 regions have been named, so Zindra could grow that large if there is enough demand for it.
== Changes to Search ==
There are three search functions: Internal to the viewer, and two on the website.
Viewer Search - Starting with version 1.23, there are check boxes in most tabs in Search for PG, Mature, and Adult. This determines what kind of regions your results will come from, and what words may be filtered out of your query. You can choose the checkboxes in different combinations (they are not exclusive), and use different settings on each tab. If you are not "verified", the adult checkbox will not be available (greyed out).
If you do not have the adult checkbox active, certain input words to search will be "filtered". That means they are ignored as if you did not type them, and you get a message about it in the results window. There are a few words which are filtered no matter what setting you use. These refer to banned activities such as ageplay and gambling. An additional 60 or so english words are filtered if you do not have the Adult box active, mostly referring to sexual activities.
search.secondlife.com - Input words are always filtered on this search. Results from Adult regions, and parcels on other regions with the "Mature Content" flag set in About Land are excluded.
maps.secondlife.com - Input words are not filtered on this page. Results from Adult regions, and parcels on other regions with the "Mature Content" flag set in About Land are excluded. 
== Account Settings ==
To access Adult Content, you need to "verify" your account. Learn how.
== Documentation and Downloads ==
Numerous changes have been made to Linden documents and software to incorporate the adult content changes. This includes the Community Standards, Knowledge Base, and Wiki.
=== Community Standards ===
The Community Standards, which govern behavior in Second Life were updated 25 Jun 2009, although enforcement was delayed until 15 Sep 2009 to allow landowners to move or change their content. In particular item 5: "Adult Regions, Groups, and Listings" was changed.
=== Knowledge Base ===
Visit Category:Adult to see Knowledge Base articles on the Wiki about Adult Content.
=== Viewer Downloads ===
* Official Download Site for Latest version (currently 2.0.1)
Note: Some people have trouble running this version of the official Viewer, you may want to check alternate viewers:
* Older official versions
* Snowglobe 1.0: Beta viewer that uses HTTP communication
* Third Party Viewers
* More links to third party viewers
Only alternate versions based on the official 1.23 version or later will have all the adult features.
== Discussion ==
Extensive discussion of these changes occurred since they were first announced:
=== Blog posts ===
* 2009-07-03 - A Zindra Update: More Land on the way!
* 2009-06-26 - Zindra: An Update
* 2009-06-15 - Welcome to Zindra
* 2009-06-10 - Search and Adult Content
** Search and Adult Content Discussion
* 2009-06-01 - Adult Content Changes in Summary
** Adult Content Changes Discussion
* 2009-04-21 - Update - Upcoming Changes for Adult Content
* 2009-03-25 - Follow Up: Adult Content Changes
* 2009-03-12 - Upcoming Changes for Adult Content
=== Press releases ===
* 2009-04-21 - Linden Lab Ushers in New Era of Second Life with Initiative to Customize The Experience for Each User - Also available in French, German, and Japanese.
=== Inworld meetings ===
These are transcripts of "Adult Oriented content controls" meetings.
* 2009-05-11 - Followup definitions meeting transcript - Download MP3 audio
* 2009-04-17 - Definitions meeting transcript - Download MP3 audio
* 2009-04-16 - Landowner meeting transcript - Download MP3 audio
* 2009-03-27 - Merchant meeting transcript - Download MP3 audio
* 2009-03-25 - Educator meeting transcript - Download MP3 audio
* 2009-03-24 - Adult Content Forum Transcript - Download MP3 audio
=== Forum Threads ===
* RC Questions
:Opened 01 May 2009, Closed 01 Jun 2009, 2,864 posts
* Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions
:Opened 31 Mar 2009, Closed 01 May 2009, 7,408 posts
* Main Forum Thread
:Opened 17 Mar 2009, Closed 31 Mar 2009, 4,676 posts
* Motivations and Goals
:Opened 12 Mar 2009, Closed 17 Mar 2009, 890 posts
* Definitions
:Opened 12 Mar 2009, Closed 17 Mar 2009, 488 posts
* Account Verification for Accessing Adult Content
:Opened 12 Mar 2009, Closed 17 Mar 2009, 365 posts
* Filtering Adult Content in Search and Classifieds
:Opened 12 Mar 2009, Closed 17 Mar 2009, 96 posts
* Geographical Separation of Adult Content
:Opened 12 Mar 2009, Closed 17 Mar 2009, 1,044 posts
Forum posts by Blondin Linden: [Note: the official status of these answers is not known]
* 2009-04-28 - Keywords Qualify for Landswap.
* 2009-04-27 - Private Parties are OK
* 2009-04-27 - Living Above the Store
* 2009-04-26 - Blondin Linden Post 2392783
* 2009-04-14 - Blondin Linden Post 2390187
* 2009-04-14 - Blondin Linden Post 2390184
* 2009-04-08 - Blondin Linden Post 2384315
* 2009-04-07 - Blondin Linden Post 2383239
* 2009-04-06 - Blondin Linden Post 2382260
* 2009-04-03 - Blondin Linden Post 2379542
* 2009-04-02 - Blondin Linden Post 2378595
* 2009-04-01 - Blondin Linden Post 2376259
* 2009-03-31 - Blondin Linden Post 2375414
* 2009-03-13 - Nudity in Mature Regions
===Issue Tracker===
* - "To track any content that has been incorrectly marked as Adult by the search filters"
== Commentary ==
* Kira Welty's Summary
* Satiated Desires Blog Summary
== Footnotes ==
== See also ==
* :Category:Adult
Category:Adult