Conclusions from various threads about what people want the teen grid to be...

1) No Linden dollars.
2) No uploading of images.
3) Secure logging of all conversations.
4) Constant, intrusive surveillance of all things on the grid by Liasons.
5) No sex.
6) Certain adults "let into the grid" to "protect the children" or whatever.

So uh... why would a teen play again?

LF

people need to stop making teens seem like stupid and brain dead people. Ive noticed that all of you treat kids as if they are just going to be like "Hey i live here. please come over my house and abduct me". teens arent stupid. You guys act like you all werent teens before. Anyway, why do you guys care anyway, they arent causing any change to you on your part. They arent affecting the main grid, so why are you being so stubborn about it. Lordfly i agree with you completely on your views.

I think the point is that LL needs to weigh the pros and cons of various points of view, and the feedback from the community who are parents of some of these teens will be considered in that weighing.

No one is saying that all of these things absolutely must be done, we all just have our various thoughts on the matter and hope that they will give the various decision makers food for thought.

This is the value that debate brings to the table, which people are only so often ready to dismiss to quickly.

The trouble is litigious parents. Parents expect corporate america to police themselves when they interact with their kids. They expect corporations to act as baby-sitters if they provide services to their children. If everything is not squeaky-clean, they sue. For big US$. That's reality.

Er, Blaze, you might want to go read the "Observations" thread.

That is only one part of the problem. The trouble is also corporations targetting children, and then thinking they have no responsibility what happens. If you are going to provide an environment for children, whether it be a RL daycare center or school, or an online environment, there are safeguards that you can take to protect children. Shouldn't that be one of the goals? Instead of passing the blame around, take an actual stand and say these are the things we can do, within our power to help this situation, instead of contributing to the problem. Yes, parents need to be responsible for what their children are doing, but corporations also need to act responsibly. They are often driven by the same thing you accused parents of, big US$.

D'yever think that maybe some of this stuff could be the kid's fault....?

Just to take a little spin out of your points:

1) People do not seem to be opposed to a currency within the game world. Where the concern lies is with allowing GOM/IGE into the mix, as it could become a very expensive proposition for children (and their unwitting parents without safeguards in place). This could all be avoided by making an in game currency that cannot be sold on external sites, and is not the L$. This is supposed to be a learning tool for teens, so give them an economy but don't tie it to RL dollars as the main grid is.

2) The most common thing asked for has been filtering of images. I am not opposed to uploading of content, but the free reign uploading we have now is not appropriate in that environment, given the fact that we can force the viewing of images onto others without their consent. Being proactive about screening would go a long way toward providing an acceptable level of protection on this issue. I agree that blocking it altogether is a bad idea.

3) AOL offers the ability to see who your children are IMing/emailing, without seeing the logs of the conversations. This is a fair balance between privacy and protection, especially in a situation where the parents have no access to the grid or account.

4) The grid does need to be monitored more closely than the adult grid. It can certainly be done in an unintrusive way, but a hands off approach to just handling problems after they occur, as opposed to preemptively stopping things from occuring is a bad idea.

5) You can't suppress sexuality, and that is not the issue - the issue is on dealing with the issues of hardcore pornography and other adult content.

6) I think not allowing adults into the grid, other than Liasons, is the right approach - I certainly haven't been clamoring for it. On the contrary, I am more concerned about their ability to keep anyone out.