Don’t blindly trust Adult ratings on sims in #OpenSimulator. They don’t necessarily mean the same as in #SecondLife.
If #OpenSimWorld advertises a sim as Adult-rated, and the description is in any language other than English, chances are the sim owner doesn’t even know what Adult means in this context. Chances are they run the whole of OSW through Google Translate, and “Adult” is translated into what only means “grown-up” in their language.
The concept of “adult” meaning #NSFW pretty much only exists in English-speaking countries, if not even only in North America. Places with other main languages use different wordings and often don’t shy away from naming things clearly. Thus, people who live there may be unaware that “adult” stands for stuff like nudity or sex.
Also, the translations of “adult” in the viewers may not be the same as the translation of “adult” when running OSW through Google Translate. This might explain why some sims by non-English-speaking users have different ratings in-world and on OSW.
In general, it isn’t quite as bad if the sim owner’s native language is German. Germans are often pretty relaxed, and they’re very likely to run sims which actually allow for nudity or even more. See Stark. Also, English as a second language has been mandatory in the Federal Republic of Germany for decades.
On the other hand, it tends to be somewhat worse if the sim owner is Italian, not only due to a frequent lack of any knowledge of English, but also because Italians seem to be particularly up-tight. It may be another case of that dreaded prudish “wishful thinking” that “Adult” only means “no child avatars allowed” in #OpenSim.
So if a sim is rated Adult, but the sim description is not in English, be careful and look around the sim. If you spot things like nude beach signs or furniture with naughty animations, chances are good that the Adult rating means what it usually means. But if not, don’t assume it does.
Is anyway all nonsense in Opensim. Never met somone younger than 40. lol Average age is 60.
In SL it makes sense. In the early years of course. There were teenagers in second life when it was new. But now you will only find teenagers in Fortenight (average age 27 yo) or other games.
What would it mean then for Americans if they are under 21? In Germany you are adult as 18 years old. In USA you can go in adult shop when you are 21 yo or in a Pub and drink alcohol.
In all other countries in the world you can go at the age of 18 in an adult shop or drink alcohol even with 16 in a bar or Disco.It is all nonsense and made perverted what Americans made out of opensim. OSW is just a typical prude american website. There is no need for such. We write in Fediverse or Facebook anyway more.
Would be interesting to see how this translates into other languages/to other cultures where there aren’t abbreviations for ratings. It’d be easier to understand for them, but hard to translate.
Sometimes it wouldn’t even fit. The German “translation” of PG is USK-6 for video games, or if you’re too old for that shit, and all you understand are the FSK film ratings, it’s FSK-6. But you can’t transfer the #SecondLife and #OpenSim ratings to German because both Moderate and Adult would be USK-18/FSK-18 if you go by Linden Labs’ age limits.
