Petition for alteration of age restrictions

ANY relationship means just that.

Let me put it this way, as long as my daughter is my responsibility and until she is 18 years old I don't want her to be friends or anything else with anyone I don't know, much less some nameless and faceless adult in an internet game or chat room. Giving a 50 year old that I don't know and approve of access to talk to, be friends with, and influence my lets say 15 year old daughter isn't gonna happen if I have anything to do with it.

I do sympathize with your specific situation but such is life. There are other ways you can maintain your friendship outside of the format of SL. If he is a lasting friend, time will tell and not having access to SL together will not matter. You have to draw lines somewhere and it seems reasonable to me for LL to not allow minors on the main grid and vice versa.

Um... no thank you.

SL is a very adult place (in many different ways) and I like it like that. And I don't want my 16 year niece here, or Billy's daughter.

There are tons of ways to keep in touch with your friend, and dozens of other places/games to interact with him. Please let me have this one 18+ place on the internet. You can have the 10,000,000 13+ places.

eventually it will all be the same, i think.

Better not let her play TSO, then. They got 15-year-olds AND 50-year-olds on there.

coco

I don't think keeping teens of the main grid does one Iota to protect them. I think teens are mostly pretty savvy and are dealing with real issues that would scare the bejeezus out of thier parents if they knew. I mean how many people are really ever ready to know thier 15 year old is sexually active and gets drnk at high school paties.

I think teens are perfectly capable of dealing with every aspect of SL in an adult and rational way.

Still there are laws, and I want teens kept off the main grid because I absolutely do not want to get in trouble in a hugely legal strictliability way. Teens should not be on the MG to protect adults.

Ahem... Jake... 15 year olds are NOT adults fyi.

Don't think for a second I am coco. As I said before, it is a matter of time until some teen gets sucked in by some sicko and gets abused irl bc of Teen-SL and that will be the end of all of SL for everyone. I was dead against Teen-SL in the first place and think that greed is the only reason that I can see why LL would even think about creating it.

Disagree. Part of the way you KEEP them from getting drunk at parties and/or becoming sexually active too soon is by drawing a line, imo, and generally drawing that line VERY conservatively as you are going along. You can always loosen the reins some, but you can't retighten them. Not that that's my main parenting tip - that would probably be talking, discussing, everything, anything, and all the time.

My girls always knew many adults, and were with many adults that I didn't personally know or know well. If they had wanted to play TSO, I would have let them (in fact, I originally thought we would share the account), but with me always popping in to see what they are doing, and talking about things.

If your kids are online, they are going to find all kinds of stuff they aren't even looking for, and get all kinds of e-mail and IM's they didn't ask for, either. This is another matter for discussing with them at length.

Yes, they have seen a lot of that, accidentally, everywhere, at school, at other people's houses, you name it. And they know about all that. But that's a different thing from saying, well, you know all about it anyway, so it's no holds barred, and let them play online games they aren't legally old enough to play. (Which is also a bad lesson in ethics.)

By setting these limits - and societal limits are probably pretty accurate and reasonable ones to stick by - you DO help them have a more carefree and innocent childhood and adolescence. The boundaries protect them from their own impulses, toward things they aren't really old enough to handle. (And by the time they are, they will hopefully have enough sense not to want those things.)

Besides, it gives them something to look forward to!

I think the teen grid is a good thing.

coco

Yeah I saw you and.. someone else said almost.. but there were several replies saying that they think it should be.. Plus it was just one of those things that cropped up in my head that I thought I'd ask..

We couldn't lose Torley after all!!!!

Eggy do you know how hard it is to clean Coke off of a Plasma screen monitor...geesh

This petition was a attempt to lower the age restrictions, or leave it alone. It wasn't meant to raise it. There is going to be a lot of problems if LL raises it. they can even be sued. From some of the opinions I've heard in this topic the same thing would happen if it was lowered. Which brings me to the conclusion that this petition was a failure. When I turned 18 i was legally an adult and 100% allowed to access any and all adult content. At least in MY country anyway (which is where LL is stationed). Now I'm in my 20's. If LL attempts to revoke my adulthood by doing this, there is going to be even more drama and trouble circulating the field for them.

It's bad enough I'm separated from one friend but to be separated from everyone else I've ever met in SL, just because im not 50 years old, would be unsound. I work hard (just like most other people) and come home to expect to spend the rest of my evening with my friends and self constructed creations in SL. Ive done nothing wrong. Ive never had anyone abuse report or negative rate me. Ive been a honest and friendly person. Ive helped several people. Ive even made avatars for some.

When i found SL it was a blessing to me. I enjoy every minute of it no matter how bored I become. I deserve to be able to use this software just as much as anyone else. And I deserve to coexist in the same grid that i do now. Seeing that I am paying to be here. So with that said, I know LL isn't planning on doing this. They would have yet another grid to manage, more money wasted on it, more employees needed to handle it, lots of objecting people, more servers, and law suits. Since this petition failed, I would like to have it locked please.

Of course you disagree, you are a mother. Your need to know you girls are safe, and thier need to keep from getting in trouble will ensure that you will NEVER know everything they did in highschool. You will get glimpses of it around the dinner table in coming years (like when your oldest is 28 and the ten year limit on getting in trouble ends.

I absolutely agree with your main parenting tip, and i agree with setting limits. But your job is not just to set limits your job is to give them a sense of self, and responsibility to themselves that they will make the right decisions for them. Do that, and you would never need to worry about what your kids are exposed to, because while they will make mistakes, they will be smart enough to know its a mistake.

In my life the most self destructive behavior I have ever witnessed was from college kids who grew up in very restrictive familes going wild when they hit campus. Just setting a limit also gives them a goal. Freedom becomes the act of doing what is wrong. It si much better to teach them that everything is a choice, and a choince they make, with consequneces they will suffer.

If you have done your job as a parent, your kids will not be endanger of losing thier moral compass form anything, including exposure to the evils of the SL main grid.

But your point about not encouraging kids to break the law is a good one. And I have never said kids should be allowed on the main grid. I'd just rather have them sneak on the MG in SL than sneak drugs inot thier friends in rehab.

A lot of people seem to be missing the point. Aswell as the person who posted after thise one. From what i see, this proposal is to give the parents the decision instead of having someone else make the decision for them. It should be YOUR desision what your child has access to. Your making that decision allready. But lets look at it this way. Lets say you didnt mind allowing your 17 your old to access the main grid of SL, but LL tells them they cant. Wouldnt you wish there was some way you could work out a deal to allow them?

Also i must add in reply to this specific post. Disalowing your teens to make friends with someone you've never met, sounds very selfish. Your child goes to school and and makes freinds on a daily basis. Some of them are even teachers. You will never meet ALL of there friends. You might have met a few, but theres people youve never even heard them speak of. If you really want to make sure your child doesnt make friends with these people, Don't send them to school. Keep them at home. Never let them leave the house...

I was sexually active when i was 10, and ive never let it control me. Im 25 now and i can safely say ive done a good job. I waited a long time before i ever did it. When i hit 18 it all broke loose. Cuz i had to WAIT all those years... If i had children and found out they where sexually active at a young age, i woulndt be one bit scared or suprised. In fact i would do whatever it took to teach them how to control it. But i would not deny from the cravings. Some people really need to put down the bible and realise not everybody lives under US or religiuos laws. Some countries don't have age restrictions yet some even deny adults access to porn.

If i had kids, heck Id even buy them porn just to prevent them from getting, or making someone else pregnant. Id be more happy to see them being constructive in SL then getting drunk, or raped at some drug party. SL is just a virtual world for pete sake. hell if you go play WoW im sure you will find a lot of people that are under age. i havent heard anything being done about that. After going through the gestures and emotes of WoW i heard a swear word! It shouldnt be such a big deal. My parents didnt even worry about me being sexually active. They knew it. I controlled it for like 20 years.

I don't want to see the age guidelines changed for the simple reason that I don't want to have to deal with teens in SL no matter how mature. In this case I am thinking of myself and not the teens. It's bad enough in First Life.

Besides it would ruin my business of selling them cigarettes through the fence.

Why is this even an issue?

In the United States, the law says that you are not an adult until the age of 18.

The TG is meant for those under 18.

IE, "kids".

Besides, do you REALLY want 15 year olds to see all the glory of, oh, I don't know, bondage, Gorean Slaves, Furry dicks, vores, D/s, latex fetishes, and all the other crap that goes down in SL on a nightly basis? Do you think your little Timmy is ready to see a humanoid cat tied up to a torture rack while participating in some DVDA?

I'd hope not.

LF