Underage kid is back on new account

If the teens have talent then why would'nt the teen grid not grow like SL does from adults talent?

Can not the kids sell their stuff on xstreet ?

Why cant they wait till they are adults to get into the adult grid hell as a kid i had to wait till i was old enough to go into the 15+ movies then I had to wait to go into the R ones is there some reason the teens cant wait?

Just separate adults and kids as they have already done, with the teen grid and mainland.

But as for splitting adult and mature, to me, we are all adults here and don't need such personal dictatorship.

Keeping kids out of prawnography is something the whole net should get together on, which is impossible really, everything in the net has moved so fast it's hard to keep up so it really is up to parents to set filters or/and LL go after the ADULTS on here who are pedophiles.

I fully agree with you on your last statement and I am still wondering why a guy is on here who knowingly took a 16 yr old on as a slave and knows her friends who are under age ( one is 11)are in here also. I have to wonder does he feel they are "more mature' than most other teens ?

Missing buying power. Lots of development in the main grid is driven by the economy.



No they can't. There is no xstreet access for teen grid residents.

Just to set these points straight - personally I have my doubts about allowing minors on the main grid.

in addition to what daniel mentioned about buying power, the number just aren't there.... it's too small a slice of community.


I think that's a misdirection, I'm not talking about giving them earlier acces to adult content, I'm talking about exposing our broader market to their unjaded innovation. a proposition in which everyone benefits.

It's not something I want to happen blindly; because of the obvious risks and problems with the current state of things. but I do think it'd ultimately benefit everyone in the end.

like I said, just my personal opinion. it's not like I make or control policy...

If its a small number then why uproot the majority of adults( at this point in time no one is sure what is classed as adult or mature) to a new area just so a few kids can sell things.

I am sorry i still dont get the reasoning in this maybe I am getting old but teen grid for teens SL main grid for mature adults seems simple to me. I can only see if kids get into Sl they will try to get into the adult areas and some will succeed. When I started SL and CC were needed there were not the number of kids in SL as there seems to be now.
If selling their things is such a major deal then give them a section at xstreet that way no one gets disturbed

The problem is, that nefarious nature IS on the grid now. (>_<

I have no problem with people who have the opinion that the merge is a good thing in their mind and I'm not directly against you. (=_=)

But be aware that uncle Lumpy Lap is sitting there drooling at the concept of being able to re-name himself, getting on a virtual environment where he may easily find teens who could potentially be sexually explorative, and conditioning them to his desires. (T_T)

You know I run around is a little loli avatar. Because of that, a lot of people quickly think I'm a kid and some go so far as assuming I'm a kid here behind the keyboard. Why do I say this? Because when I go little on Help Island; underagers spot me rather quickly and assume I'm one of them. They usually don't hesitate to talk about anything to me. Including age and what their intent is here. Whereas, when approached by adult avatars, they see the 'authority' of an elder and clam up. (=_=)

Now.. If uncle Lumpy Lap got himself a cute kid AVI... Can you see the danger? (T_T)

Wasn't there just a study showing that the danger of this Uncle Lumpy Lap in a virtual world like SL was totally overrated? To be honest, I see the dangers a minor (talking about teenagers here, not little kids) could encounter in SL as laughable compared to what can be found at other places on the web.

In the end, the dangers minors can encounter online are nothing compared to what they can encounter in the real world. The internet is all just pictures and text. It's when gullible kids run off to hook up with the predators in real life that the troubles happen. The internet, though, seems to be the preferred target for the "OMG think of the children!" crowd. I've never seen any real life campaigns to keep the adults out of the Bible camps, Catholic churches, movie theaters, and comic book shops in an effort to keep potential pedophiles away from the kiddies. Statistically, you're more likely to find them lurking there than in virtual reality, yet it's the internet where every adult is automatically assumed to be a predator.

Because, according to the law of Linden, Age Play is the absolute worst and foulest thing you can possibly perpetrate in this world. It's not so bad if you're cyberporking a 16 year old, or putting real life information and threats against someone in your profile, or anything (I dunno) illegal or morally wrong. God forbid someone decides to put nipples on their child avatar though.

CALL OUT THE HOUNDS!

That is because there is a Teen Grid. It's much more difficult for teenagers to be open about their age on the main grid, and for adults to access the Teen Grid.

Merge the grids, and SL becomes a lot more like other places on the web.

Actually that study covered a broad range including social sites such as Facebook. The people conducting the study had a vested interest in finding the opposite conclusion, as in, hopefully that there was a high incidence rate, but were unable to. Tragedies do occur, but at much lower rates then people previously thought.

Do you have a link to this study?

There were a lot of articles on it when it first came out a few months ago. I read it on CNN, but a quick Google search came up with this and you could use keywords there to broaden the search:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=58005

I've always assumed that the majority of under-age residents are likely to be boys who use sci-fi or combat type avatars to cause trouble in sandboxes.

I disagree and I would be far from pleased to see minors sharing the grid with adults.

Any amount of damage can occur in an online communication between an adult and a minor - and that goes for the adult as much as the minor. Comparisons with the dangers minors face in RL is Job's comfort at best and specious at worst: a great deal of harm can result in RL from 'merely' textual internet communications.

The main grid is being re-purposed for "Education"; that's the business plan.

Dear me. Sounds like Blue Mars might be just the ticket in that case.

If you want to play virtual golf or look at a waterfall!!!

As for why Teen SL doesn't grow more than it does, take into consideration:

1) "Life Span"

In TSL, there is a maximum of 5 years that any one avatar can be there, as compared to the 80+ years you could (theoretically) spend in main SL. If i were a teen and had a few years to spend there, i would probably hold back on what i did a bit.. knowing that in a few years i would have to leave it all behind.

2) "Turn over"

The population of TSL is continuously "losing" residents to main SL when they reach 18. As compared to main SL, where there is no limit to how long people can exist there. So, while new residents may enter TSL on a constant basis, they are also losing numbers on a constant basis. (i have no idea what the comparison is to those entering versus those leaving)

3) "Product sales"

As mentioned earlier, teens cannot use Xstreet. This limits their economy, as does the fact that teens do not generally have the purchasing power of the 18+ crowd (not to mention the raw populace.. the amount of people who are even in TSL compared to main SL is overwhelmingly in favor of main SL). As economy is an important aspect of what bolsters the population, this inherently limits the (fairly non-existant) long-term worth of participating/investing in Teen SL.


Just these three things alone paint a fairly vivid picture of what limits the growth of Teen SL. I'm sure i'm missing another point or two, but you get the idea.

Personally, i think if SL is to become the "Nexternet", it will eventually need to not only merge the grids.. but also remove the minimum age of 13. It will need to be opened to everybody. Granted, it would probably require even more preventative measures put in place along the way, which honestly.. would make it safer than the regular internet.

Regardless of whether the adult continent stuff is being done in anticipation of such a thing is somewhat moot. Whether it is or isn't, it would certainly come in handy if a merger does occur at some future point.

I'm all for opening everything up, with some rules in place. Perhaps even keeping a Teen SL intact as a "parental control" continent. So that teens would technically be allowed in main SL, but parents would have a choice of saying "My son/daughter is only allowed to access Teen approved regions" (being Teen SL and probably a decent amount of Educational regions/etc.). I know.. "what keeps the teens/kids from registering for SL without their parents knowledge?" This is a fair point, but also returns to the point that somewhere along the line parents are responsible for their children and it isn't the job of a computer program to raise their kids.

anyhoo.. this is WAY longer than i intended and i have other stuff to do (more forum reading, maybe go play some City of Heroes or work on a skin.. *shrug* ..it's a day off from work and i have nothing planned, which is rather rare ).

I sure as Hell don't wanna be livin on a virt'al campus!

Among the findings of the high-profile Internet Safety Technical Task Force which were reported at the Annual State of the Net Conference in Washington in January this year were the following:

- fears of sexual predators are overblown and technology alone won't keep children safe
- up to 90 per cent of indecent proposals online are made by peers or older youth, not adults
- many acts labeled 'solicitation online' are harassment or teasing, rarely involving attempts to arrange real-world meetings
- the percentage of online youth solicitations have dropped from 19% in 2000 to 13% in 2006
- youth typically ignore or deflect solicitations without experiencing distress

Most of the under age people i have come across are female and all were in highly sexual some even in the extreme sims. Te girls seem to me more forward in what they are looking for the boys i found were more timed in their approach. The ages i have found in here re btw 13 -17

Thank you for the clear explanation but here is my take on it ..
5 yrs is a long time in a teens life and they tend to move on to newer things and fads in general so would there be many who would stay the 5 yrs? Look at how many in the main gird of adults stay that long.

How many of us get to know someone and they leave SL so turn over in the main frame is also high. RL gets involved in both areas and causes us to leave or change the amount of time we can give but maybe as an adult out "time" changes less

If product sales is a factor in keeping the teens happy in their grid then would it not be easy to allow them onto xetreet to sell to all than to mess about with people who have spent time, effort and money settling what they have for the sale of letting kids into the main grid.

I still wonder how many teens want to interact with their parents OL my view on this is I would not want to if i want to be with my kids ill log off and go be with them so much more interesting in RL

All talk of timelines and willit/wontit aside, I play a child avatar in SL, and I can't really say how long I would remain one if LL started to allow underage users on the main grid. The possibility of having to interact with RL minors over the internet (via SL or otherwise) is bad enough as it is. Such interaction while I'm in a child avatar is just too unnerving to me; it ain't happening.