Non sexual nudety and child avatars

This reminds me of that story in Austrailia where everyone got all crazy about a nude kid on the cover of an art magazine.

Here's a link:

http://tinyurl.com/4jumt9

If only this were true. There are minors in SL and where better for a kid to hide then in playing a child. They would not have to hide how they talk , often a give away to someone being a teen. I have found a 14 yr old girl in an adult area as a child AV. She claimed to be 25 at first but after talking in IM for a bit she told me she was 14.
Never understood the need for an adult to want to play a kid and go to adult areas

many people don't understand why some adults like to dress up as animals, many people don't understand why some adults like to watch other adults half a world away kicking a ball towards a net, many people don't understand why some adults like to skydive, many people don't understand why some adults like to listen to repetitive music, the list just goes on and on

Ummm... surely you just shot your own argument in the foot? When I was 14, I hung out in pubs, went to X-rated movies (the equivalent of today's R) and generally broke my neck trying to convince people I was nearly 20. I often succeeded - and that was in First Life. In Second Life, had it existed, I would have died before I'd play a kid.

Indeed, it is far more likely a teenager pretends to be a gor master with a chain of slaves then to play a teenager.

It is all about hysteria, luckely for myself I am never naked even without clothes, I'm always covered in fur

But it is a fact that SL is more restrictive for child avs then RL is for real kids.

actually, I think the answer might vary depending on who you ask and where in the world irl you're talking about....

Then you met the exception, not the rule. You wanna find folks who are RL kids? You'll find them in adult avvies, and likely doing things they ought not be doing. :-/

Many RL kids start out as an adult AV but find it easier to hide as a kid after all there are no kids in SL correct?
Its much easier to play ones self than try to act to much older you dont have to watch what you say and how you say it when about adults

So tell me, how many child avatars do you know? Most I know - an I know more than a couple - are most defintiely adults, oftem much older than their virtual ages.

I stand by what I said before. Part of "the fun", it would seem, for a RL child is not in playing on virtual playgrounds and in digital elementary schools: the whol point would be to do something forbidden to them. Like, oh, SLs sex clubs or combat sims.

I think I see what Windswept's getting at: the ploy of hiding in plain sight. Several people here have mentioned that a RL kid would most likely be playing in an adult avatar. It's likely that we wouldn't expect a RL kid to be in an SL kid avatar, so where better for a RL kid to 'hide' than in the place we wouldn't think of looking? Depending on the age of the (RL) kid we could be crediting them with far more sophistication than they merit with that 'ploy', though. I do also understand and believe Marianne's point about RL kids wanting to do what's forbidden, which seems far more likely, to me.

Considering the behavior I've seen coming from "older" avatars... I'd argue it's harder for a kid to be a "kid" in SL when it comes down to how they act. (=_=)y

The problem is that it's the majority opinion that kid avatars are more likely to be kids. That's why we're more subject to "age" related ARs regardless of our RL birthdays. (>_<

While there is a certain logic to this proposition -- assuming that it is easier for a child to act as a kid than to act older, it would be easier to hide in a child avatar while being a child -- that assumption has some good counterarguments.

1. Child avatars in SL in my experience do not act like real children seen online. They attempt to imitate the behaviour of children in first life situations, instead, including typing with speech impediments in specific patterns that require careful imitation -- which actual children do not do when online. (They type with characteristic spelling and grammatical errors instead.) Speech patterns of a typical SL child avatar take some serious brainwork to imitate, brainwork a real child would dread.
2. Engaging in behaviour socially designated as childish, like playing with toys, shooting things, and otherwise enjoying yourself is no indication of age in any fashion, because it is well known that adults, given the time and opportunity, will not hesitate to engage in it either. SL is the perfect time and opportunity.
3. According to my own research statistics, and according to earlier psychology research (I could cite that, but that'll take a while) people under 20 will tend to inflate their age if given the option to lie about it, while people over 20 will prefer to decrease it. It would require some really clever thinking on the part of a child to think of reversing this desire, which is based in things they normally consider more important than being discovered and punished.

In short, 'hiding as a child because of being a child' only sounds like a clever idea to an adult.

All well said, Rika!

One million lemmings can't be wrong.

whoa.... the logic here is starting to be like looking in a mirror at a mirror!!!!!

Yep, all we need is for someone to broach the subject of sexual RP with kid avatars and this will be just like the million other kid threads.

Someone using a hacked client to take a picture of a child av is a non-issue. Someone taking a picture of a child av that is naked with a client that isn't hacked isn't an problem either.

Off topic. =^-^=

.... and I think I've done enough to prove that. (^_^)y

(Yet, I keep going...)

most people are incapable of thinking logically.

I do not see how there is anything such as a child avatar really.

Without the role-play element .. its not really a "kid av"

its just a downsized adult shape which might be wearing their hair and clothes in a manner a kid would.

The funny part is that's the response I got when I asked about the possible knee-jerk reaction. If an age isn't asserted, either in profile or in chat, an age isn't assumed. Now, I'm sure this doesn't apply to the whole G-Team as each probably has their own opinion. (^_^)

Crud! Did I notecard that meeting? His first response was hilarious! =^-^=

Of course, in RL, most nudist colonies (known these days as naturist resorts), are perfectly happy allowing RL kids of any age to participate, usually nude. Although they'll prohibit many of the public displays of affection you'll see on SL nude beaches.

Well, I have a boy and a girl in rl, both underage teens, and watching how they act on other areas of the internet, I would say that underage boys in sl might tend to dress as robots/borgs/superheros, smother themselves in weaponry, shoot first and chat later (it would never occur to them that this might be seen as griefing) and take an intense interest in competitive activities. Girls might tend to dress to the nines with very very long swishy hair, lots and lots of jewellery and bling, facelights, pretty frocks, very high heels with cloppy sounds etc. and might be inclined to be a bit cliquey and bitchy.

Of course this is only based on two young people and in any case this could describe a huge chunk of the newbie population and a fair proportion of the settled residents, so unless somebody is very blatant about being underage, I choose not to suspect anybody.

People who use child avatars are just about the last people I would suspect of being rl kids.

To go right back to the OP, I think it's probably deliberate that LL haven't specifically addressed this issue and it fits in with the whole Broadly Offensive policy - i.e. they want us to decide and AR things as we see fit so that it's not their fault. To put a slightly kinder slant on that, I don't believe they want to censor anything at all unless it harms their business not to do so.

You know? That is the BEST wording I've seen so far on the subject... Or any vague TOS subject for that matter. (o.o)

The mistake you're making is thinking that kids who want to play SL will recognize their own behavior as "young" and something that needs to be hidden.

I'm not a RL kid anymore, but I was one not very long ago. And I can say with some certainty that a kid's definition of "childish" or "immature" is "something that kids younger than me do". Kids and teens do not think of themselves as "children", they think of themselves as short adults, and seriously bristle at the suggestion that the things they do are "childish". I think I can safely say that it would never, ever occur to a kid sneaking into SL that "hmmm, people might notice something young about my talk and actions, so I better make myself a kid av so people won't get suspicious". That's just not the way they think. They'll think they can fit in just fine with all the adults. Of course that's not true - people who type like Jumpman Lane, for instance, will usually make people think, "kid". But a kid won't understand that.

Besides, the lure of SL, to a kid, is the simulated sex and violence. By intentionally sequestering themselves in an avatar that effectively blocks them from participating in those things, a kid would have absolutely no reason to stay here. Kids want to play a GAME, not sit around and talk - they've got cell phones for that.