Teen Grid Joining OUR Grid?

"No current plans (although definitely a future desire) to merge the Teen and Adult grids" is the official LL stance according to Phillip Linden. However, note that their careful wording does not say "No kids allowed on the main grid". They could allow teens or pre-teens on the Main Grid, while still continuing to operate the Teen Grid for those who want a more protected experience.

Also note that the Main Grid is no longer "Adult". They have implemented major policy changes to make it suitable for young children, with "Adult" content sequestered away from most of the main grid, and requiring Age Verification.

Further note that Linden Lab's business plan and all their major hype is for SL to become an educational resource. And if you look at what the educators are doing and saying, and consider the kinds and quality of educational resources possible within SL, and who that mainly appeals to, you will see this is clearly all about children (not college students).

(Actually I believe I already heard of teens on the Main Grid for educational purposes, so I think allowing them online already happened in a quiet way some time back, under certain circumstances. But I have not investigated that closely so I could be mistaken that the future is already here.)

As someone has noted, "no current plans" is code for "it will happen sooner than you think". But who knows? They might decide to run both the Teen Grid and the Main Grid (inhabited primarily by teens/preteens for "education" at the same time. And then eventually they might simply shut down the Teen Grid, since it's largely redundant and all the good stuff is on the Main Grid. Presto - no "merge" ever happened!

Draw your own conclusions.



Not a chance in hell.

There isn't enough money in the business of avatars toodling around and shopping and jumping on poseballs and making art. However, there is a vast audience of rather unsuspecting people in the education community who can get excited about using this new technology. And wasn't one of President Obama's top advisors just in Second Life yesterday giving a talk about how the administration is aware of virtual worlds and how they are getting involved (at least in a regulatory, if not a promotional way)? And isn't there a huge cash cow of educational funding about to be available from the government? The pipe dream would be tax-funded mandatory SL accounts for all schoolchildren, the "No Child Left Out Of Cyberspace Act". And they can keep their SL accounts and be good little customers after they graduate. Everyone will thereby get to be in the metaverse, which will be Second Life.

On the other hand, maybe I've been smoking one too many scripted objects.

Draw your own conclusions about how far it will go, but the direction seems "transparent" enough.

we could just find the 80 some odd page thread or how ever many it was and necro it so we don't have to retype everything again
sometimes necro's are a good thing lol

i don't even remember the name of that thread

The have no current plans, but it's an idea that's been floating around for a while and to become the 3D internet of the future you need to allow whole family access , so it doesn't take a gewnius to seewhat would have to happen.

Perhaps if Pony Linden gave you an exact date for it's implementation and a full ficticious budget summary you'd be silly enough to take that as gospel.

Why not challenge just any of your electoral candidates in RL to see if they plan on introducing/raising any taxes?

IMHO the merging of the Main Grid and the Teen Grid is dependent on the success of the Adult Continent, with success here meaning the effective ring-fencing of adult content away from the rest of the main Grid.

When LL are convinced that the Adult Continent is working, THEN they will finalise plans to merge the Main and Teen grids, and I believe that at the same time the Adult Continent will be moved to the former Teen Grid servers, with a separate login to the one used for the Main Grid, creating a new Adult Grid.

LL will then have two business models, a family-friendly and corporate-friendly Main Grid, and an Adult Grid, which then may attract advertising and an inworld presence from companies that cater to the Adult Industry.

The new CEO of LL was brought in to prepare LL for a public listing. Any potential buyer of LL will be well aware of all the adverse publicity concerning SL and it's links to child porn, and other extreme forms of sexual behavior in SL, and would not touch it with a 100m corporate bargepole. However, if they could just buy the 'good' part, or indeed the 'bad' part, or both, then LL would be in the most flexible of positions.

Rock

For reasons similar to why someone who is 17 years and 364 days old today will be charged with a felony if he has sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend tomorrow.

Granted, one act is unlawful and subject to criminal sanctions while the other will just get you kicked out of a video game; but the thought processes are the same.

I do not want teens or kids on the main grid. Ever.

This is your choice though. In my case those i have become close to in SL i have now made contact out side of SL for those times when SL is down or one of us cant get into SL.
You say it would be a real blow to have to leave and lose those friends then why not set up an MSN account and add them to that, not like they will land on your door step

I really feel sorry for the ones who graduate to the adult grid and have to leave all of their friends behind. They were just being honest on the sign-up form. And then they have to wipe their friends list at 18, get banished from their favourite hangouts, and never go back. Kind of sad really.

All it does is encourage them to lie and say they're an adult. It's so easy. I mean... look at me. I've been on the adult grid since 2003 and I'm only 14!

Yeah, I think a grid merge would cut down (not eliminate, but cut down) on the number of cases of teens lying about their age to get on the main grid because, well...they wouldn't have to.

I'd AR your underaged posterior, except I like your cool aircraft too much.

Nice dodge, swapping a "b" out for the "e" in your name.

You know, they tried that. It died a miserable death. Initially it was called Club Jenna Islands, sponsored by Jenna Jameson, then added other adult websites as sponsors. Nobody every came from those sites. They had 8 regions set up for masses of visitors, which stayed empty for 6 months, then they closed it down.

Go ahead and look up 'Jenna Jameson' in search/people, she has an account under that name.

Even us deviants don't want the RL Corps in SL

i remember that..one of them was actually involving playboy if i remember right..
that wasn't but this past winter or last summer right?something like that?
i just remember her name being all over the place and talking to the owner and another owner of another club at the time..we all three just did small talk for about 30 minutes..i never gave it any thought as it actually being her places since so many people used everyone elses names anyways..

What crap they dont lose friends unless they choose to. If they want to keep contact they can add them to their my space, facebook or MSN. Please dont go on like their world will stop because one of their acquaintances gets older.
If you have this attitude what happens in RL when one of the group becomes old enough to enter a pub, does his friends all get fake IDS?What about when one of them leaves school for a job do the others wag classes to hang out with their friend?
The teen grid should stay separated, I have yet to see any reason why they should join other than LL wants them to.

Yeah...

I want an open, freely participatible adult community, not a for profit porn site in the form of 3D cartoons. And it looks like I'm not alone in that either.

I spend most of my time in adult only content, and yet I almost never set foot in any of the pushed-content clubs, escort places, etc. But even those who do go to those places, probably are very glad the people working their are fellow SLers and not bots of RL porn industry marketing department people.

Hey Daniel

there is a post here https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/4802#4802 where it is quoted you as

"Teen grid residents such as Ubuntu Houston and Daniel Voyager have spoken out in favor of merging the two grids with certain limitations to protect minors from adult content and predators on the main grid."

Just in case you wanted to comment in that discussion as it would be good to have your input there as well imo

/me still wonders a bout the meaning of adult--must have changed during the years..
I don't want this merge, i don't want teens around me, ty! Teens in the teen grid , adults in adult...
so simple and still so difficult to understand for lindens?

You know, when I first came to the main grid one of the first things I noticed was how much bigger the main grid map is compared to the teen grid map. (Seriously, I had to, like, take a walk around the block while I waited for it to load.) What I'm saying is, how exactly does a grid merge mean that teens will be around you? The grid is huge, and most places aren't PG. If they merge the grids, and you don't want to be around teens...don't go to where they are?

It's so simple but people keep missing it, family/corps on the family/corporate grid which is to be the main grid, 90% of it's PG, unpopulated, for sale or any combination of the above.

I think RL pubs and clubs should allow under age ppl in and allow them to drink and gamble also so they dont have to forge fake IDs

It's irrelevant how much land there is for everyone because people congregate to socialise, and what's to stop them turning up where I am? If Teens are allowed in how are we going to KNOW who is a Teen and who isn't, if perchance we have the misfor... delightful pleasure of running into them - unless they have to be identified somehow to make it absolutely clear. Yeah it'd be a really good idea to identify all the 13 and 14 yr olds, wouldn't it? Yes, that'd make them really nice and safe.

If, on the other hand, they were going to be corralled into separate PG areas then, erm, isn't that like being on a Teen grid anyway?

I for one don't want kids around. Separation is for our protection (and yours) as well as theirs. If the current state of the Teen grid isn't up to scratch then LL needs to develop that more, NOT allow kids into the Main Grid.

--
Aes

Well.. the "they" in your statement wasn't LL. That was all private regions and I believe Vivid video was involved as well. You're right though, there IS an aversion to corporate media here inworld. I went and visited Jenna's little porn world when it was up.. to me it looked like an 8 sim mall with a club at one end. That's it... same as any other mall with a club in SL. Completely deserted as well. I think even MY boring ass could come up with something more engaging then what they came up with IMO.

It was a under-age teen in SL that caused havok in my household about SL in the first place, sending me these crazy offline IMs about loving me and wanting to marry me...and i only knew him from his wrongfully grid stalking me on my first night until he was in the same room with me and then he stood there refusing to leave while i adjusted my avatar, all the while giving me little tips and hints as if he was helping.

Didn't know he was a teen then, but he eventually admitted being 15.

If teens hit the grid you can be sure our sim will be adult only/age verified and any place i go for entertainment on the grid will have to be in the adult sector, or at least someplace where i will not get IMs from teensters.

It would be cool if they put some sort of filter choice in our avatar profiles so we could choose to not accept IMs from under-age residents when they eventually arrive.

And what stops them from seeking us out?

The only recourse we will have are land access tools.

Hey Lord

I was in favor of the grid merge back in late 2007 but since then I don't support any grid merge idea/plan today. It would destroy TSL and cause havok around SL leading to residents leaving SL or even worse.

The interview back in January 2009 via Metanomics where my question was raised...that was totally unexpected and that question should of gone to straight to LL for improvements for TSL after I transferred.

Today with the changes happening to adult content over the coming months seems to be very worrying indeed. All Linden Lab needs to do is keep the Teen Grid and improve the community for teens to be in a safe teen space. Keep the grids separate.

Thats my review on this.