There have been a handful of cases in which users in Second Life, a role playing game were found to have been creating or exchanging child pornography, which has led it to be a common target for media outlets. This includes both real-life photographs and virtual recreations of pornographic scenes involving children, which are illegal.

Although this problem could occur on any internet site which allowed material to be freely uploaded, it is much more difficult to deal with on Second Life because of its strong support for content crossover. The problem is compounded by the full customizability of Second Life avatars; it is easy to create an avatar which has the height and stature of an adult but appears child-like with regard to body development, or vice versa, and a person's belief regarding the age their avatar appears to be may not match the belief of other people.