Linden Lab Official:Maturity ratings: an overview
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Important: Viewer 2 has renamed maturity ratings: Keep reading for details. |
What are maturity ratings?
Maturity ratings are a way to designate what type of content and behavior is allowed on a region.
There are three maturity ratings in Second Life: 
General, 
Moderate, and 
Adult.
Why did the maturity ratings names change?
Before Viewer 2, the Maturity Ratings were PG, Mature, and Adult.
We needed to change the names for two reasons:
- The main grid is 18 and over, so no "parental guidance" is necessary. "General" is a better reflection of the content type than "PG". We've changed that designation so that it more accurately represents the type of content on those regions — any Resident can go there and the content should be fine for work, school, or home.
- Reducing international confusion. Translating the difference between "Mature" and "Adult" was tricky, especially in languages other than English, and was very difficult to communicate. "Moderate" and "Adult" have very different meanings and cross languages much more easily.
Is the rating name change another way to separate Adult content?
No. The name change is just a name change. It doesn't affect the way Residents find or access regions or content.
Differences between Maturity Ratings
General
There are some landowners and Residents who desire a Second Life experience distinct from the activity that occurs in Mature and Adult Regions. Region owners who wish to host this sort of Second Life experience can (but need not) designate their Regions as PG. A Region may be designated PG if it does not advertise or make available content or activity that's sexually explicit, violent or depicts nudity. Likewise, sexually-oriented objects such as "sex beds" or poseballs may not be located or sold in PG regions.
As we've also often said, PG regions are areas where you'd feel free to say and do things that you'd be comfortable saying and doing in front of your grandmother, or a grade school class. Institutions such as universities, conference organizers, and real world businesses, for instance, may wish to designate their Regions as PG. Likewise their users (and others) may wish to employ Second Life's PG search setting to deliver further targeted search results.
If you're unsure whether your region is PG or mature, or feel there's some ambiguity as to whether your content and activities are allowed in PG regions, it's probably best to designate your region as Mature.
Please refer to our FAQs for further guidance on the implementation and enforcement of this policy, information on our account verification procedures, and information on how we will transition our Region owners and merchants to this system in an efficient way.
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Moderate
Second Life's Mature Designation is intended to accommodate most of the non-adult activities that are common in Second Life. For instance, social and dance clubs (unless those clubs promote sexual conduct or use adult search tags), bars, stores and malls, galleries, music venues, beaches, parks (and other spaces for socializing, creating, and learning) all support a Mature designation so long as they don't host publicly promoted adult activities or content.
Thus, Residents in these spaces should expect to see a variety of themes and content. For instance, stores that sell a range of content that includes some "sexy" clothing or objects can generally reside in Mature rather than Adult Regions. Dance clubs that feature "burlesque" acts can also generally reside in Mature Regions so long as they don't promote sexual conduct, such as through pose balls (whether in "backrooms" or more visible spaces). However, if any of these businesses uses adult-oriented search tags, it may be categorized as adult and also blocked from appearing in non-adult search.
Groups, events and classifieds that relate to this broad range of activities and themes generally should also be designated as Mature.
Adult
The Adult designation applies to Second Life® Regions that host conduct or display content that is sexually explicit or intensely violent, or depicts illicit drug use. Any Region must be designated Adult and therefore require account verification, if it advertises or publicly promotes the following:
- Representations of intensely violent acts, whether or not photo-realistic (for example, depicting death, torture, dismemberment or other severe bodily harm)
- Photo-realistic nudity; photo-realistic means that an image either is or cannot be distinguished from a photograph
- Expressly sexually themed content, spaces or activities (whether or not photo-realistic); we will broadly define what is "sexually themed" to include any sexually oriented activities and conduct
Groups, event listings and classified ads that reference these themes or content must also be designated Adult. Linden Lab will enforce these rules. However, we can't monitor all ephemeral content and conduct within Second Life. We will therefore rely on several factors in implementing these Adult designation requirements:
- First and foremost, Regions, groups, and event or classified ad listings that employ search tags plainly suggestive of adult behavior or content will require the respective Adult designation, and not be viewable to Residents who are not account verified.
- Second, we will conduct proactive monitoring and rely on abuse reports that identify adult content or conduct that is promoted or advertised publicly. Where adult content or conduct on a Region is publicly advertised or promoted, that Region must be designated as Adult (or such content must be removed). We will re-designate such Regions if adult content is not removed.
- We may take into account whether apparent or reported adult content or conduct on a particular Region serves only an extremely limited or passive function, or an important educational or cultural function, and therefore would be appropriate for all Second Life audiences.
- As with all reported activity in violation of our policies, we will actively review all reports of adult conduct and provide Residents with a channel for rebuttal.
In the linked FAQs, we offer examples as to what types of Regions are and are not considered adult, based on, for example, distinctions between "public" and "private" content, as well as distinctions between content that is "expressly sexually themed" and content that is not. Linden Lab has created a special-use "Adult Continent" — a "mainland" alternative where adult content and activities can be located and found by Residents. Landowners wishing to host adult activities or make available adult content can either
- Locate on this Adult Continent
- Locate on a Region that has been designated by its owner as Adult
Region owners are responsible for designating a Region's maturity level. Occupants of Regions will be expected to locate in a Region suitable to each occupant's content and conduct.