The fur flies in Second Life

From TechCrunch

Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, may be extending their crackdown on “Broadly Offensive” behavior to Bestiality, following attempts to remove virtual pedophilia (or Age-Play) from Second Life in March.

The Second Life Herald (NSFW) goes on to ask whether consenting adults dressing up like animals and partaking in virtual sex with each other or with human shaped avatars (virtual bestiality) constitutes broadly offensive behavior.

There is also a wonderful debate going on about how accurately a virtual animal has to be rendered to be a participant in an obscene act - Roger Rabbit not apparently, Jessica Rabbit yes.

The initial thought is that you just can't make this stuff up

However, the secondary thought is that yet again Porn (3.D style) is showing the way..........the issues brought up here point to the future differences in legal niceties between virtual and real worlds (i.e. is what is illegal in a real world also illegal in a virtual one - is a virtual crime like this still a crime, as arguably nothing has happened, and the animal is actually an avatar of a human*), and this is just the tip of it - we haven't even started with religious issues yet, but it will come as early adopter geeks give way to mainstream users.

Over the next few years one can imagine a whole host of virtual situations which will create interesting ethical and legal dilemmas.

The worlds may be virtual, but the issues - as with taxation - are real.

*allegedly