Define: Child Avatar

I'm just totally curious... I know... It's easy to point at Marianne, Loki, Toy, Koffeekid, and say "Those, over there." But, really, what "makes it"? (o.o)

Really, when I'm trying to pass as a kid, I'm being told I'm just a little adult. When I'm trying to pass as an adult, I'm told I'm just a tall and overdeveloped kid. My dolly gets yelled at for being a "kid" when she visits the places she likes. And, I know a lot of people here know about my AR history (Got it fixed BTW). (=_=)

So....

What exactly makes an avatar a kid avatar?

Height: Anything shorter than 6' tall prim-height? (o.o)

Features: Soft Jawline? Shy Eyes? Tiny Nose? (o.o)

Clothing: Pastel babydolls? Hippie jeans? Mis-matched shoes? (o.o)

Behaviour: Ikklespeak? (O.o)

I think I've truly found myself in THE gray area now. My current avatar on the surface is 5'6" prim height with the basic mischievous imp face that I usually lean toward. My body is fully developed to around a C cup and well curved hips. Beyond that, I'm not even human at the moment. I just completed my battery pack and relocated my USB jack last night. To the scale of my attachments, I should fit quite nicely in a coffee cup. But... I've already been told, "Someone could think you're just a kid in bondage straps." And it leaves me wondering...

Where is the line between [ Kid | Not kid ]? (o.o)





COOL BATTERY PACK, HUH?!?! =^-^=

opposite to a root or parent avatar

Edit: re your image your the type of girl I would love to know, but also realise I would go to jail for getting to know you too well, I would walk on the other side of the street pretending not to be gobsmacked

1 user sprayed tea all over her keyboard! (>_<

You can only see me within an adjoining sim.

No, seriously, it should be pretty obvious that an avvie like me or the others you named are kid avvies. I think it is a lot of the things you named, too that make it clear. Unfortunately, some don't get the subtleties in presentation. This is why some dolls and lolis have faces ARs and such for being "sexual ageplayers." Frankly, I suspect that folks who go out looking for kids to AR are not worrying about specifics too much. It's like if a feral or neko was harassed for being a "fur fag" (what a dumb term!).

/humor tag on...


it's easy to spot a child av. They are usually very very short, wearing clothing totally inappropriate for a 5 year old. They talk in baby talk that is painful to read and hard to understand, and their profiles are full of threats about how bad they will @#$%%$ you up "if u mess wid ma baby bwuddor or ma mommie or ma dadddddddy"..... They delight in showing up at adult events in mature sims, and practicing their cusswords, the more obscene and offensive, the better.


/humor tag off.


Yes, I'm making a joke, but sadly, IN MY EXPERIENCE (let me say that again, IN MY EXPERIENCE - as in this is what I have seen, if your experience is different GREAT! I'm not talking about ALL child AV's, just the ones I have seen - Your milage may vary) this is what some think the child AV roleplay is all about. Personally, I find it neither cute, or funny. I'm told this is some people's "release time"...to each his own. I tend to mute the child AV's I come across like this, and leave the venue, never to return.

Please don't flame me...this is my opinion, and I'm entitled to it. If you don't fit the description I gave above, good on you! I'm glad to know that not all child AV's act like that.

Don't worry... You're not alone. Especially the ones that are "teen" avatars and their "I can cuss all I want" attitude. It drives me bloody BATTY! (>_<

when I first started in SL I made my av my RL height of 5'1"and fairly slim ... but I kept getting asked "are you a child av?" everywhere I went. it became so annoying having to explain / defend myself I ended up "growing" to 6'2"

I also spend at least 75% of my time with fur on, though I retain human features and am not a anamorphic furry I do get the occasional "where is that wet cat smell coming from" or "whats that wierd cat thing on the dancefloor?" comments every once and a while, so I know what Marianne means.

I suspect a kid av is one that embraces being a child in SL, not just wearing a child looking av for awhile. Many of us remain child avs in SL always. It's who we are. An bein a child av we can often get away with being embarressingly truthful in what we say.

Immy, you got the fun part down and I look at you as one of us who is just confused hehe

hugs
Toy

First, I love that avi Immy. Really, really nice job.

I think trying to define child avatar is pretty tough. Everyone has their own subjective scale that they use. It's not so much hard and fast rules. (under 5'9", or narrow hips) But more of a feel thing.

When I first saw this av, I thought you looked like an anime character. Tween/teen with an anime costume. Especially with the ao you were using. (and of course, knowing it was you, I had no idea what you were cooking up!)

After looking closer, I could see that you were going for a robot/cyborg/type thing. But from a distance it's very, very subtle.

Some avs are obviously children (Toy, Marianne, etc.). For the borderline appearances, I'll rely on profile, and talking to make up my mind. (I consider asking to be rude, so I wouldn't do that.)

Are you able to tell more about this fixing? Did anybody at LL admit that he was wrong, or even better, that the whole AR process turned into the ultimate griefing tool?

Last night at Sine Wave i saw a short bulky dude with pierced ears, a tanned mature face, cool hairstyle.. Looked 19-22. And way short. And.. with a binky?? Opened his profile and found out he was 5 years old and "lubs his family sooo mush!" Um, ok.


Anywhoo, what actually makes me *believe* someone to be a child av is height combined with facial features that seem childlike (oh how many "kids" i have seen in grown up skins.. with mature make-up..). Clothing matters also, and hair. As for the talking, I appreciate children who can speak properly but oh well. Even if they type correctly they can talk in a manner that is childlike.

I'm just not sure how much of it is appropriate to talk about on the forum without risking another threadlock... But, I did get an apology for the errors made. (^_^)y

I don't get out and about much, so the only child avs I see are in my store, and I only have one criteria for a female child av. If she has breasts, she's intentionally an adult; if not, she's intentionally a child. That doesn't account for teenage ones, but there you go. That picture of ImNot is clearly an adult to my way of thinking. The breasts and skimpy clothing indicate it to me.

I don't recall seeing any male child avs, so I don't have any way of recognising them.

I thought you were a kid in bondage straps when I saw you at the hangout. Didn't even think of cyborg. Well, that was before you turned into a trick-or-treating little kid with a pumpkin costume. Then I thought you were a kid in a pumpkin costume.

To a certain extent I saw you as a kid in bondage straps and clear latex, instead of an adult in bondage straps and clear latex because I thought you were a kid. As in, I thought that was your normal avatar in world, a kid.

child, adult?




why, I'm a hobbit of course, note the ears (and the chin fuz, and the oddly veined/muscled arms)

They don't have breasts either

*giggles* I thought human dwarf. Furry feet would have said 'hobbit' immediately ^.^

My 9 year old "nephew":

XD Gotta lovez teh punkin costume! XD

Me on my dolly goes trick-or-treating! Xd

lol. Thank you for the clue

Immy, I think you may be running into human nature and the way our brains work. When I first saw your current cyborg avatar, I still "saw" a kid -- or at least my brain did, because that's what I was expecting. It took me several minutes to shift mental gears and actually see what was in front of me. Our brains see what they expect to see. It keeps us from having to reinterpret everything we see all the time.

What makes me recognize an unfamiliar kid avatar is a little about size and features, but a lot about style and attitude. Your av does not have the kid style or attitude to me, though it does seem inspired by anime as Jerboa pointed out, and to me anime characters tend to look like teens or tweens.

Anyway, it's a cool avatar. I don't consider kids, or teens, or tweens, or aardvarks a threat to me.

First, let us assume that a 'child' is defined as 'a human being with chronological age below a certain threshold' -- that is how the law usually defines it. (And that is not what most cultures defined it as. For any culture known, certain rituals must be performed that magically turn a child into an adult. No exceptions. Before, it was going out on a hunt, these days, it's getting a driver's license or a passport. But I digress...)

Then, it lets us assume that a 'child avatar' is an avatar made to imitate a child.

That results in an avatar being required to imitate signs of chronological age under the child threshold to be considered a child avatar, while at the same time, 'being a human'. Both present obvious difficulties.

For one thing, seeing as the avatars are just images, empty inside save for the prim parts poking in, there is no difference between someone 'imitating human' and 'being a human' as long as they're avatars. There's no way you can tell whether I'm supposed to have one heart or two, unless I get a prim attachment that makes it look like my chest is torn open. And there's no good reason to assume whether I mean to be human or not to be human, since I might as well have neko ears hidden in my haircut.

For another, few people are clear what physical signs of a chronological age are -- it takes long arduous questioning to squeeze the data out of them to make an expert system -- and SL avatar construction facilities are not sufficiently detailed to make chronological age obvious in all cases.

As a result, we can safely say that something called 'child avatar' is not rigidly definable and might not even exist as such.

What does exist though, is child roleplay -- requesting that others suspend their knowledge that you are an adult and assume that you are a child and act accordingly. That, in itself, is not dependent on wearing a child avatar, whatever one is.

If anyone can name any objective criteria beyond that, I'd love to see them.

Oh look: a child avvie:





You forgot the blingy binky. That's a requirement



No flame. I've seen jes th' sort. They dun often mix well with other kids, I've noticed. For example...



I may know the one, or at least have seen one 'round like that once or twice. Even had a bit of facial hair if it is the one. Seems moren a little off t'me. I'll see 'em f'r a day or two at HardKnock trying to do what I'd consider good High School role play, but not in any of the other placces, really.



I'm gettin' better at talkin,' honest!



The breasts is also one of the limitatiosn of the avatar mesh. Ruth doesn't like not having breasts on her. You have to really juggle to get her to look right. Boys have similar mesh problems in the shoulders and, um, "package" area.

Nevertheless, I seem to be seen as a kid pretty easily, whether I'm in a jumper an mary janes, or if I'm wearing the bandana, goggles, floppy hat an dirty jeans I wore on the playa last week.



Here's a couple, albeit both are not entirely standard models.

I own an adult place and this comes up all the time.

If you came to my place, Imnotgoing, I'd look at your profile text/groups for some indication that you've tried to make my life easy by saying "18+, RL and SL!". If you had that, you probably wouldn't hear from me. If you didn't have that, I'd politely ask you about how old your avatar is supposed to be. What happens then would depend on how you answer.

At least for me, the end-all question is: if a Linden came in here and saw you, would they believe that you're an adult?

Also, if you look like you might be a kid and you club, please, PLEASE, add something to your profile to help us owners out. I guarentee that we have to stop what we're doing and deal with this question more often than you do.

/me nods. (=.=)

Actually... I did do a whole profile reworking after my 'event' last week. Because I do have a sort of rotation with my avatars; I'm using my picks to identify each character. It's pointed out in my 2nd life tab along with a combined photo of my main appearances. (^_^)

Though, I'm choosing not to assert an age with any of my avatars anymore because, oddly, I have had more problems with that than anything else. For some people "I am 18+" in your profile reads as "Want sexys now". I can almost gauge the change in my IM traffic. (T_T)

I ran into this problem the other night. The place was a very adult type of location. The av was short, with childlike/doll-like features...but a well developed figure.

The most disturbing part was something that no one has mentioned yet...animation. This person's AO was very "childlike". She fidgeted and spun and posed constantly. This, along with her rather "innocent and clueless" style of chat combined to produce the impression that this avatar was a child.

Her profile, however, was anything but childlike.