Is Second Life getting too similar to the real world?

First terrorist bombings and now, child abuse in Second Life. So much bad publicity for Linden Labs could turn people off using Second Life. It's kind of scary how people can hide behind their avatars and become who they want.

It made me wonder, when companies have meetings in Second Life, are employees genuine? Do they feel that they can say more/less, or be more bold or slack because they're hiding behind an avatar rather than sitting in a boardroom staring their manager in the face? I don't know if I could talk business with my manager if his avatar was say, a pink haired goth...

Sona

Comments

[Alex Manchester]

This is a massive, massive problem if you ask me Sona. I'm not sure how true it is, but just the rumour may be enough to do serious, irreparable damage to Second Life. It's also another black mark for Linden Labs and no doubt hastens the time when a company with better ideas comes along and does the whole thing far more professionally, far more robust and far easier to use.

There's no doubting the concept of the 3D web, but at this rate and at least from a business perspective, this particular 'metaverse' appears to be living on borrowed time.

Robert Scoble has a post on the topic too.

[Job van Harmelen]

I think you are taking second life too serious. It's great fun but it's also just a fancy Internet Browser. Anonymity is definitely an issue but that issue applies to the Internet as a whole: How do I know that someone who replies to a blog is the person he says he is?

As a company you do not want to create platforms where employees can communicate / blog / chat anonymously. If you want transparency you can not do without accountability and meritocracy.