Second Life creator Linden Lab has announced a series of initiatives designed to provide stricter control of adult content and make the virtual world more customisable for its user base.

The firm will introduce a three-tiered rating system - PG, Mature, or Adult – for all Second Life regions that will be used to identify content and set individual preferences.

Meanwhile, adult-oriented content will be migrated from the Second Life mainland to a newly created continent, with details on the "migration" set to be released in the coming months. Access to adult regions will be restricted to users with verified accounts.

“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,” the company said in a statement.

"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,” said Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab.

“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."