Teen/Adult "Shared Zone"

This has probably been discussed before, but... there really should be an area accessable by both Teen Grid and Main Grid users. Restrict behavior in it to Teen standards, or even stricter, to keep the Teen-Accessable areas safe, but, the main reason I bring this up is that there are communitys that exist outside SL as well as inside it, that have members both older and younger, and the hard split can cause strain on the community outside SL too.

NO -- there are too many people who take advantage of teens. Not under any circumstances.

Yeah, cause God knows we don't want our teens to ever learn to think for themselves.

We should just isolate them from the outside world until they leave home. Then it's ok to just throw them to the wolves totally unprepared.

Well with the sign-up system now having absolutely no age verification (apart from having to select your birthday - yeah right, that'll work!) both the teen grid and main grid will have people of any age in them now.

To think it won't happen A LOT is pretty delusional. It wasn't perfect before (using credit card details for age verification etc.) but at least it was something. Now there's nothing apart from stated Linden policy which, to be frank, many will just ignore.

Erm, out of curiosity, do you have children? In my admittedly non-expert opinion, it is often the children who excel at taking advantage of adults
Never mind the fact that teens take advantage of other teens all the time. Turn on your TV - High school is traditionally depicted as an unpleasant experience where everyone's a bully or a manipulative bitch.
This silly "noble savage" theory of youth must be put out of its misery. Children can be the most EVIL little creatures. There are no innocents.

I still think it's daft that teenagers of 16 can make love in RL but not as avatars. That they can be put in charge of a dangerous weapon on wheels in RL but not in charge of an avatar on the main grid. That in many countries they can be called upon to die or kill for their country in RL but must be protected at all costs from pornography or paedophiles in SL.

The internet hasn't changed the fact that most children who will be abused - 1 in 5 at the last estimate - will be abused by someone known to them and their family.

UruLive while it was in operation allowed children and adults to play and encouraged family participation. I was initially doubtful of this, but then realised that it was a very good protection that other adults never had any idea whether the person behind the avatar was an adult or a child.

I'd say that a common area might be a very good thing...it could be kept PG, would encourage exchange of ideas and objects and might teach people in the main grid that teenagers are often intelligent, literate, thinking, creative people, and not griefers.

I would be interested to know if Linden liaisons noticed a big difference in the behaviour on the two grids.
Cali

well as a parent to be, if my child was playing this game, and she was in the teen grid, and i was in the adult grid, i would like her to join me in world, and stuff kinda like me looking over her, and what she is doing

can't be done, too many pervs.

I do agree it would be nice to allow a mixed teen-adult IRL community to mingle in SL. There are lessons that teens need to learn from responsible adults and mingling will foster more communication.

However, I agree that this is not safe in SL. There are responsible adults, but there are also dangerous (as in predatory) adults. While it would be fantastic to have responsible adults guiding and sharing ideas with teens, there exists no way to distinguish responsible adults from the predatory ones.

Better maybe to have LL employees or LL accredited educators do the guiding on the teen greed. At least there is some control there because LL's name will be at stake. It's not much but better than having a mingling area.

Hey, that's a *great* idea! It's getting far to hard to recruit noob Slaves, Strippers and Escorts in the WA. Now I can realize my dream of pimping out a string of teenage Slave/Hos in SL!

Thanks Dude!

</sarcasm&trolling>

Efin' no.

What if soon, they merge both worlds and make it one? One big happy family where there's no age check, no separation..just one big world 13 years and up.......

They wont, legally.

In practice, it's always been that way.

My daughter isn't allowed to play SL period because I don't believe that the teen grid is free of adults and I'm not able (nor would she want me) to watch over her time there every minute. I know the adult grid isn't free of teenagers so why is it any more reasonable to assume ages are properly verified over there either?

I still feel the teen grid was a bad idea to begin with and that LL should have been more focused on age verification in the main grid instead of giving it up altogether as they have.

And to stay on topic here... no a general lobby where adults can mix with teens would be just as bad an idea.




yes mine take advantage of me daily *laughs* dam kids

You know, you sound EXACTLY like NAMBLA.

And you sound exactaly like a moron.

Yes, if and only if:

1. It is none of the existing areas of the main grid.
2. It is entirely seperate from the main grid.
3. A chat-monitoring system is put in place for both chat and IMs and is aggressively used and made publicly aware.

I think this is more of a moral panic than a real phenomenon really. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I don't think it's any more likely than at the local grocery store.

In any case, it's trivial for any teen to get on MG.

Experience tells me 16 year olds don't 'make love' - they fumble, fiddle, grope and giggle.
A subtle difference, but a difference none the less.

Hahahahaha, 16 year olds often have kinkier sex than us grown ups.

I wish we could just get a "sticky" FAQ on topics like this.

18+ grid is not about teen's maturity, etc. It's pure and simple cover-your-legal-ass for Linden Labs and everyone in SL because of the very high risk for lawsuits if little Jonny sees a naked breast or buys his first strap-on.

Considering that LL doesn't appear to have an age verification system for signing up now, doesn't give me confidence th at they could run a "shared" area effectively either. They've demonstrated an unwillingness to hire staff, so Linden policed seems unlikely either.

Yes, I think they are exposing both themselves and the residents to this risk with their current policy. It is certainly forseeable that someone under 18 could enter SL, in the absence of any form of age verification. Such things may not work perfectly, but it would cover their ass if they took all reasonable measures to ensure it didn't happen.

What the non-US residents, and maybe even some of the US folks may not realize is that in the current political climate, even theoretically being in legal complaince may not be enough to keep your ass safe.

All it takes is a politician in need of a 'cause' to scare people and distract them all the real problems, or a religious flake group who wants to make themselves a rep. Or even a freaked out parent sparking off a witch hunt.

Even if you win, the costs of fighting a lawsuit can be enough to kill a company. The negative publicity can do the rest --- although you would probably get a huge surge of "where's the pr0n" gapers at first.

Several industries have had to fight these type of things... video games is the one that springs to mind.

Yep, Second Life is indeed a 'video game' on a computer so it's at risk. It's only a matter of time. When, rather than if.

Lewis