SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Linden Labs, the creator of virtual world Second Life, today announced the details of a series of initiatives it plans to implement that will enable users to filter content by adjusting their search settings.

The new capabilities will be introduced with the launch of version 1.23 of the Second Life Viewer, which will contain a series of controls that “enable Residents to set maturity levels for regions, set individual preferences and filter search accordingly.”

While word of these changes has been circulating for a while, today’s announcement clarifies the three-tiered initiative that Linden says will add “a greater level of customizationm [and] 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,” Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon said. “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.”

The newly-announced initiatives are, as follows:

• 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.

The company also will be implementing several automated processes to supplement its existing abuse reporting procedures in order to help enforce, manage and measure the success of the program.

The press release can be read here.