Linden Lab Ushers in New Era of Second Life with Initiative to Customize The Experience for Each User

Second Life Platform Evolving to Meet the Needs of Diverse, Global User Base; First Stage in Process Allows Users to Filter Adult Content

San Francisco, CA &mdash April 22, 2009 - Linden Lab®, creator of the virtual world Second Life®, today announced a series of initiatives aimed at making the Second Life experience more customizable for its global user base. By enabling individual users to filter content by adjusting their search settings, Linden Lab is able to preserve the founding principles of Second Life while evolving the medium to better serve the needs of its growing and increasingly diverse community. This will provide a more predictable experience for Second Life users, a group that contains a blend of consumers, companies and cultures from around the world.

Since its inception in 2003, Second Life has been an open environment that emphasized creative freedom and individual expression. Due in large part to that freedom, as well as important strategic decisions such as allowing users to retain intellectual property rights to content they create, Second Life has become one of the largest hubs of user-generated content (UGC) in the world. With a growing inworld economy and a broad user base that includes consumers, educators and large enterprises, Linden Lab continues to lead an industry widely recognized as the future of communication. Retaining its foundation of openness while adding a greater level of customization marks an historic step forward for Linden Lab, Second Life, and the virtual worlds industry.

"From the beginning, Linden Lab has led the way in the development of virtual worlds and has set the standard on many cultural and social issues involved with virtual communities," said Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab. "Preferences and community standards vary tremendously across industries, countries and cultures; our goal is to retain as much of the freedom as possible while continuing to push the medium and our platform forward. We made this decision, and defined and developed this program based on the direct requests and feedback we received from the Second Life community. As we continue to grow, it is crucial that we maintain the diversity of user-generated content while providing enhanced controls to support a wider range of uses."

Second Life continues to be an 18+ environment that serves a wide variety of people and pursuits. This will now be supplemented by the following initiatives:

  • The definition and implementation of a three-tiered rating system - PG, Mature, or Adult - that will be used to identify content and set individual preferences for Residents. Definitions of each of these maturity ratings are available here.
  • The implementation of a new account verification system. In order to access Adult regions and search results, Second Life users will need to verify their accounts in one of two ways: a) by having payment information on file, or b) by using Linden Lab's age verification solution, provided by Aristotle.
  • The setting of maturity ratings for all regions, classifying them as PG, Mature, or Adult. Mature remains the default setting for all Second Life users. Access to Adult regions will be restricted to Residents with verified accounts.
  • The migration of adult-oriented content from the Second Life mainland to a newly created continent. A timeline and specific details on how the migration will be managed and implemented is being finalized in consultation with those affected and will be published later in Q2.
  • The filtering of search results according to maturity ratings and content preferences. Search results using Adult keywords will appear only for Residents with verified accounts.

To help enforce, manage and measure the success of the program, Linden Lab is implementing several automated processes to supplement its existing abuse reporting procedures.

From a technical perspective, Linden Lab will soon make available version 1.23 of the Second Life Viewer available as a release candidate (RC). This iteration will have a series of controls that will enable Residents to set maturity levels for regions, set individual preferences and filter search accordingly.

About The Second Life Grid and Linden Lab
Developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life is the world's leading 3D virtual world environment. It enables its users - known as Residents - to create content, interact with others, launch businesses, collaborate and educate. With a thriving inworld economy that saw over $360 million USD transacted in 2008, and a broad user base that includes everyone from consumers and educators to medical researchers and large enterprises, Second Life has become one of the largest hubs of user-generated content (UGC) in the world.

Linden Lab, founded in 1999 by Chairman of the Board Philip Rosedale and headquartered in San Francisco, develops revolutionary, immersive technologies that change the way people communicate, interact, learn and create. Privately held and profitable, Linden Lab is led by CEO Mark Kingdon, and has more than 300 employees spread across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Media Contacts:
Linden Lab Press Office
LEWIS PR for Linden Lab
Kristin Mitchell
Tel: (415) 992-4434
secondlifeus@lewispr.com