The Boys are back in town

Are you defending teens on the adult grid? Your statement seems bizarre.

I loved that show. Until I realized they didn't know where they were going with it.

/me slowly backs up

It was ahead of it's time, disruptive TV, even you still don't get it, which is good, not bad.

I'm not a number,
damnit I'm a man.

Bob Seeger, Feel Like a Number.

That would be telling. We want information… information… information.

I guess you missed the Question and Answer Talk M-Linden had on the teen grid as part of the 5th birthday celebration:


[11:06] Blue Linden: Are you going to merge Second Life and Teen Second Life? What is going to happen to TSL in the future?

[11:06] M Linden: There is alot of conversation about this topic and I know Philip has talked to this group about it
[11:07] M Linden: There are alot of complex issues including technical issues to consider if we were to merge the two
[11:07] M Linden: and there is alot of talk about this in the lab.
[11:07] M Linden: We working on it
[11:07] M Linden: And our goal is to better incorporate teens in a much broader way in the future
[11:08] M Linden: We hear your interest and understand your passion and try to bring you things to make this a rich experience

Looks like it wont just be summertime sooner or later....

Honestly... Because of my avatar, I'm usually suspect of being an underager myself. People will open up more about their age when they're suspicious of my age. I've had a good handful of kids bumped from the grid because of this. (^_^)y

Seems like he's defending his ability to be offensive to them. Weird, isn't it?

I'd be really upset if they merged the teen and adult grid. I've played enough online FPS's to know what that will mean. Immature adults are bad enough.

The story begins
with who's gonna win
knowing the danger that lies within
Aboard the ARK
a genius at heart
wanting to unlock the mysteries of life

I am the Eggman
That's what I am
I am the Eggman
I got the master plan

No. But they're going to be here regardless, so may as well get some fun out of it. Maybe they won't wanna come back to the adult grid for a while. Teens are really easy to annoy.

Bonus points if they go whine to someone and get themselves b& for being underage.

I didn't realize. Hmm...

I don't know that we're ever likely to see a complete integration of the teen and adult areas of the grid. The mumblings that I've heard have more to do with exploring ways to create, perhaps in a limited and controlled capacity, opportunities for teens and adults to interact together in one or more spaces. Much like the web houses spaces that are teen only, adult only, and mixed company, so I think the grid ultimately has to become.

This doesn't necessarily mean that adults should be prepared at any moment for a teen resident to show up at their home or place of business and cause grief, or randomly happen in on their adult oriented activity, thus putting both the teen and adult at risk.

It means there will be places on the grid that will be mixed company, allowing opportunities for teens and adults to mingle, share ideas and contributions that are mutually beneficial, afford the education community access to an integrated set of age and generational demographics, the list goes on.

This is not a terrible thing folks, if you have an open mind. Planned and implemented thoughtfully and carefully, the idea has great potential.

Obviously, before this becomes reality, there are great strides to be made in areas of governance, risk assessment and mitigation, ensuring that adults remain free to engage in adult activities without fear of teens being exposed to or engaging in the activities, and probably most importantly, developing mechanisms, both technical and human powered, to protect teens from predation or other harmful interactions with adults.

Therein lies the caveat. Can the Providers do it right fir once, or will they continue their bungling of most social adjustments to the grid? In and of itself, it isn't a bad thing.

not be be an SL ball-buster, but i don't trust LL with such a weighty task.

I agree with the assessment, though from a different angle.

Second Life benefits greatly from all the "adult material." It pushes content creation, it pushes the "economy," it pushes registration. Love it or hate it, the adult material helps Second Life thrive (such as it is).

Integration of the teen grid into "adult" Second Life creates just a huge nightmare when it comes to policing teen access to the adult material. It's just much easier to stop teens at the gate, rather than watch them once they are inside.

Linden Lab can't even meaningfully police the distinction between Mature and PG on the Main Grid. But as long as minors are barred from Second Life, enforcing the distinction between Mature and PG isn't a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

Teens probably don't add enough, in terms of content creation, spending, and registration, to the Main Grid to make up for the costs of better policing their access to mature content. That's just a guess on my part, though.

Now, it is true that some uses of Second Life that involve teens are great press. Teens can mingle with adults on the Teen Grid. I've recently read fluff journalism about Second Life detailing things like using it for an international summer camp. I assume those are things that take place on the teen grid. I can only assume since the articles do not distinguish between the Teen Grid and Main Grid. So, Second Life still gets the benefit of good press when it comes to teen use, without having to integrate the Teen and Main grids.

It seems that Linden Lab has a lot of headache to gain through integration, without any great reward that offsets the headache.

LL would have to make all of mainland PG and only allow adult businesses to exist on private islands with (hopefully) better age verification and tools to deal with the kid that cannot wait until he is 18.

My entire point was that no, they wouldn't have to make all of mainland PG. Mainland, by the way, is Mainland, whether you're speaking of "teen grid" or "adult grid". The teen regions exist on the same grid as the adult regions. This endeavor shouldn't necessarily push adult content off to private regions or even 3rd party grids. I say "necessarily" deliberately here, as I believe that is still an option. But let's have an understanding. There is no separate grid for teens. We have always coexisted on the same grid.

I still have a sense that eventually at least the more "fringe" activity will be pushed off to private regions or non Linden operated grids. After all, those gravitating toward the folds of the envelope, pushing hardest, will be the first to find themselves on the outside of it once it breaks. That is a truth you can hang your sculpty prim hat on.

My guess is with the joing of company grids coming that Teen grid will join too, I don't expect other companies linking to SL on the World Grid to have seperate teen grids, though I wonder who they will go for verification of users? Avatar Bob from Grid B drops in and griefs /scams you on Grid A, who is going to sort his account out? Banned from Grid A I guess, but Grid B allows him like SL to create infinate unverified alt accounts, so no problem..............

Hmm I'm sure we could find an approprate avatar for that

I thinkthis translates to them using that new IBM bridge to get the age -verified teen grid kids that age-out of the teen area to just enter regular SL grid with inventory intact. I think now the kids that wantto move over here with their inventory have to get a concierge Linden to assist them. This seems like a good idea. But LL should make a PG continent that these kids land on and can set home to - so theyget started off on the right foot before they go looking for the free sex places.


.

Maybe you can dust off Bruce Willis' Avatar. With a little work and no closeups, it might work.

Not at all! Think Lizzy is going strong and still gigging, albeit without the might Phil Lynott. The current line-up is:
John Sykes: Guitar
Scott Gorham: Guitar
Tommy Aldridge: Drums
Francesco DiCosmo: Bass

Patrick McGoohan as Number 6 in "The Prisoner" television series.