Minors

Anyone who knows me, knows by know i dislike minors sneaking into SL. Getting the Lindens to request proof of age from suspected minors is hard to do without some form of evidence tho. I had a thought (rare I know). Seeing as a good majority of griefers have proven to have been minors in the past. I suggest that everytime someone gets banned for a TOS violation, that the Lindens require proof of age before the individual can be allowed back into SL. Any thoughts?

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Considering how much porn you can find in M areas, I think they should ask before they let you play. I've never met a griefer that said they were underage. I have met at least two griefers who are actually old guys with second accounts.

Sounds like a good idea.

But then... they no doubt got in through their parents in the first place - wouldn't they just do the same thing again?

You know.. Until i started participating in the forums I didn't even know it was an adults only game. If it is.. Why do AV's not have the correct .. PARTS? You have to buy em LOL

I had at least one instance where a child was using his parent's account. The behavior difference was enormous!!

I've also met people whose kids watch their parents play SL. I let one parent know that there are M sims with mature content. She was happy I let her know. I don't think LL makes enough of a point when you start the game that its an adult community.

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I'd rather just go after trouble makers very quickly and efficiently. Some minors are more mature than people who can drink. And even if they aren't allowed officially, if they're not doing any harm they're only adding to the game.

What if they offered a "minors" account that automatically blocked your AV from mature areas?

Problem with that would be that on many an occasion I have been in a PG sim and looked over and saw things like Giant Flying penis' in the neighboring M sim

Ahh.. but its not really mine.. So i run around without one not to mention Clothes dont cover the fake ones

Yeah it probably wouldn't work anyway.

Har, and M sim residents say that there isn't a big difference between them and the PGs....eheheh.

Ok, I could get banned for saying this, but I'm 15, and I do not endorse this in the slightest. Let's judge people on their actions, not their ages.

The point is Guzar, that there are legal issues the Lindens are faced with here. It is not just a matter of behavior. Please note that the Lindens won't let minors play even WITH parental permission. Porn is not the only issue either. We had a 12 year old playing before he was caught. He was well mannered. When he got busted he couldn't understand why he couldn't play. One of the things I brought up to him was the possibilty of pedophiles. I had to explain to him what that meant. I told him that some of the conversations that had passed between us were not appropriate were not acceptable because of the age difference, even if in jest. I am 48. I explained that some folks my age would try to take advantage of him, even invite them over to play SL at his house if he lived close enough. I asked him what he woulda done If I had invited him over (I knew he was 12, he new I was 4. His answer: He would have come over because he TRUSTS me. That thought scares me. Thats exactly what pedophiles do. They earn the trust of kids like this. Sure, it can happen in any chat room. But, why should the Lindens leave themselves exposed to what can come from stuff like this?

Yes, but if a parent/legal guardian gives permission, isn't it their responsibility to prevent this situation from occuring?

Isn't a credit card required to sign up?

If a kid can get their parents credit card couldn't they also just get their ID too?

And I agree not every child is ill-manored (as Guzar has proven) and not all are nieve enough to fall for a pedophile.

If only we had Maturity Tests or something, but people could cheat on that too. There isn't really any good way to prove age on the internet. Atleast not to my knowledge.

If a kid (using kid as a derogitory word for someone who isn't mature here), wants to get in somewhere bad enough they will.

I agree that sometimes minors cause problems, but it is wrong to assume 1)Every griefer is underage and 2)Every underage player is a griefer.

I also believe the issue of kids playing should be completely in control of the parents (such as if a minor wants to play, he needs some sort of proof his parent approved of it such as faxing in a letter with a signature that can be matched to a signature on a credit card).

Unfortunately, I can see why LL can't do this. If LL were to let minors play, that would be like advertising a Mature game as an E rated game because you're not really sharing the truth about what players should expect. I mean, advertising a game like SL that is open to mature content such as nudity, violence, and language shouldn't really say this is fine for children. Even though I don't know too much about law, I can guess something like that is open to a lawsuit.

Robin Linden made an interesting comment concerning SL and kids in this thread:

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That's a cool idea to seperate the grid, but I want to go visit the kiddies!

Well when you think of a minor, you have to think in a sense of "maturity does not come with age", I've seen mature kids in this game that are pretty cool, I wont say any names though. There have been some kids in this game who have been an absolute griefer (and derek still suffers from that person ). But, I do like the idea of another grid for kids.

But on another note, kids shouldn't be in SL because of all the porn, there's as much porn as you'd see on google searches. Like, the other day, I was passing by the Maroon Mall, and I see these huge slideshows of porn.

Hmm. . .that means that LL would need to implement a system to support something like this.

I'm not a parent but if I was one I wouldn't let my child have a SL account. If my child were between the ages of 14-17 and was mature enough I might think about it. . . .but I would probably still say no. Even an adult can fall for a trap. I have siblings ranging from 12 to 23. Believe me, as adults they do stupid stuff. When they were teenagers they did stuff that was even more stupid (yes, I mess up too. ok). I also work with kids ranging from 5 - 14 years old. It doesn't take much to trick them to do something they normally wouldn't do.

There are simply too many neurotic people out there bent on getting pleasure at the expense of minors. A parent can't and won't be there all the time.

Besides, some of the stuff that goes on in SL is raunchy/pornographic/hardcore and I would not want my teenager around there. And I certainly wouldn't ask the people at a party to "tone it down" because my 14-year old daughter wants to be present. Doing so would annoy those present at the party and I would tell a pedophile that might be nearby that my daughter is a minor.

(I'm not trying to make it seem that SL is full of sexual predators. One of the reasons I like SL so much is because I expect that most of the people will be adults; and hopefully, most of these adults are mature and good-natured. Guzar, I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy your company but I wouldn't want to "dance and chat" with you in a Mature club.)

Let's say that LL were to implement a system where minors were allowed to play but couldn't enter Mature sims. People would figure out very quickly and easily who was a minor.

And of course there are the legal issues that have already been talked about.