German prosecutors have launched an investigation to find anonymous participants of the online computer game Second Life, who are reportedly buying sex with other players posing as children, as well as offering child pornography for sale.
Second Life is an internet-based virtual world with at least six million players, where you can choose your appearance, age, gender and colour.
Investigators in the city of Halle are acting on specific information about a German Second Life player, or avatar, who put child pornography images up for sale and paid for sex with underage players or players posing as minors.
“We are trying to find out the identity of this person,” Peter Vogt, chief prosecutor from the central office against child pornography told German television. ” What is being offered is nothing short of child pornography.”
Nick Schader, a reporter with the investigative television programme, Report Mainz and a member of Second Life, said he had been “shocked to see” the virtual child pornography meetings to which he was invited for 500 Linden dollars — around $3. He said the same group of people subsequently put him in touch with traders in real child pornography.
Robin Harper, the deputy president of the San Francisco firm Linden Lab which runs the game, said: “We will find out who is behind this, and then inform the police.”
Whilst in the United States “virtual” child pornography is not a crime, in Germany it is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Those under 18 are banned from the adult area of Second Life and adults are banned from the “Teen Area”, but critics say in reality it is impossible to check the ages of participants. Some players dress up as child figures, but with no sexual motivation, purchasing “skins” to make them look like minors. But so-called “age play”, in which players request sex with other players who dress up as child avatars, has encouraged a growth in players posing as children in order to make money. Sex with animals is also increasingly popular on the site. – Guardian Unlimited Â