Linden Labs' legal counsel, Ginsu Yoon, confirmed this to ABC News. Vogt, a widely recognized expert on child pornography investigations, said the game company, Linden Labs, had been cooperating with authorities. "Child pornography is a punishable crime in Germany, however it is happening, and so is virtual child pornography, which is punishable by up to five years in prison." "A player came to us to report that he was invited to virtual child pornography meetings," said Peter Vogt, chief prosecutor from Germany's central office. It makes money primarily by selling property, of which it can conjure an infinite amount."Īn online user with the name Stephen Northport described the game as "tomorrow's playground."īut that utopian world has been invaded by pedophiles, German police told ABC News. Linden Lab, the San Francisco company that created and owns Second Life, acts as a sort of laissez-faire government. Almost all of it is created by the people who pay to dwell in it. "There are minutely detailed replicas of Rockefeller Center and human-size raccoons sex and sadism and spiritual retreats conference calls and a currency exchange. "Second Life is a place where anyone can have just that," Michael Fitzgerald wrote in February on Inc.com, a Web site for entrepreneurs. "The first and primary focus is protecting real children against this horrible abuse," he said, "but this is a problem that is coming." "We believe that the kinds of images included in 'age play,'" cyberspeak for online sexual fantasies with minors and young people, "are an increasing phenomenon and will be a growing concern," Allen said.īut like many others who spoke to ABC News about the vexing problem virtual child porn poses to U.S. Working closely with law enforcement agencies nationwide, Allen's agency has for years been at the forefront of efforts to track and catch pedophiles. "There are increasing numbers of cases in which people charged with child porn related offenses are arguing … that the children in the images aren't real," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It feeds their addiction."Īs computer technology gallops rapidly into uncharted territory, interactive, or "open source," video games have allowed some users to break or subvert gaming rules and create virtual child porn - the virtual depiction of an adult having sex with a child. "All virtual porn does is satisfy until they can find their next victim. "I still can't can't believe it," said the former agent, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to talk about his work with the agency. "It's very disturbing for child advocates because it's sort of loophole," said Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and an ABC News consultant.Īnother agent, who worked for the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, told ABC News he was "devastated" by the ruling. In an unusually blunt public rebuke to the court, the Justice Department ordered that all pending child porn cases be reviewed to see whether the defendants could be prosecuted under broader obscenity laws. Attorney General John Ashcroft was furious, saying the ruling would make it "immeasurably more difficult" to investigate and prosecute pedophiles and child pornographers.
Free speech advocates and pornographers had challenged the legality of the act, and six of the nine justices sided with them. Supreme Court ruled that large sections of the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act, including the depiction of virtual child porn, were overly broad and unconstitutional. That wouldn't have been the case in the United States, where in 2002 the U.S. Last week authorities in Germany - where virtual child porn is a crime - launched an aggressive investigation to track down anonymous video game users who created virtual child porn on Second Life. Many child advocates see it as the most troubling manifestation of child sex abuse that's come along in years.Īnd they blame a 2002 court ruling that tossed out a law that made it illegal. It has found a home at places like the popular Second Life game, which is available online. They're talking about "virtual child porn," the computer depiction of adults having sex with children.