Did internet censorship lead to Big Pond leaving Secondlife?

Big Pond is leaving Secondlife. They are Shutting down their islands, evicting residents, and removing the free data allowance to the Secondlife service for their Australian customers.

Big Pond is the internet carrier owned by Telstra, who is partly owned by the Australian Government.

Could this be related to the fact that the Australian Government is seriously considering blocking SecondLife under it's new internet censorship program?

I have personally written to the government about their plans to censor Secondlife and been told they are reviewing Secondlife.

Reviewing! That means they must consider it as a candidate for censorship. If it was not a candidate they wouldn’t bother reviewing it.

The problem is that MMOG's are not covered anywhere in the Australian classifications system. Secondlife has adult content, and Australia has no adult rating available for computer software. Australian software can only go to MA15. There is no R18 for software in Australia. In fact the government voted against adding one this year.

It is very likely people such as myself have pointed out to the Australian Government that Secondlife can't be in violation of the ratings laws if Big Pond is running an estate inside Secondlife. Big Pond being partly government owned.

So the question now is:   Did the Australian Government ask Big Pond to close their Secondlife estate to avoid any scandal when they add SeconfLife to the list of websites they will block?

Stephen Conroy

Minister for Censorship