Bad news of the day: They're thinking of merging the Teen Grid into the main one

What about making all mainland PG, and letting the estates do whatever they want? Then limit under 18's to mainland. LL makes more money on estates, right?

I can see it now. Disneyification. Big monitors every were with big brother on it, and thought police.

I'm sure you've noticed that there's a good many people that have presuppositions about adults who use child avatars trying to "lure" kids somehow; up until now, these suppositions are easily staved off by emphasizing that there aren't, or shouldn't be, any real minors around to lure - and when minors are found, by and large they're banned immediately. A merger would mean that argument is no longer true; and, shouted loudly enough, those suppositions will become less-easily-dismissible and more widely-held. A merger between the main grid and teen grid would be a horrific blow for kid avatars' PR, I think. In fact, the only worse possible thing that could happen to kid avs in my opinion is being banned outright.

Again, the kids you are talking about are already doing that, they are the ones that lied to get on the adult grid, that will likely not change significantly, and they are the ones that will be kicked if found out.
The whole point is that anyone who registers as underage will not be allowed in adult areas, therefore making control a lot easier.

Any PG area will soon be ARed if they are "luring" kids for any reason, again, making control easier.

That kind of screws current landowners in mature areas of the mainland, doesn't it?

Yup. But if kids come on the main grid, someone's gonna get screwed.

That didn't come out right.

You seem to be somewhat naive about the way kids think.

They'll also be all over the news, wonderful publicity and those politicians who made silly claims about content on SL and how it is dangerous for kids, will all of a sudden have a point.

The main grid is 18+, like in RL where there are bars that are 18+. If they want a family friendly grid, create a new one, like in RL where some bars allow parents and kids in, if they want to make a place for education then create a new grid.

There are issues with the main grid that put business off, some business folks would prefer to be away from the main grid, so grant them that wish and let them have their own isolated areas.

Kids should not be encouraged to enter an arena that is aimed at adults.

She's here all week, folks.

There's a LOT of people who own mainland parcels in Mature-rated sims today, who would not in the least bit like being "evicted" or forced to either sell their land and move, or to strip their parcel down to a G-rated status for the sake of strangers.

"Hi! We've declared your neighborhood to be a 'Family Friendly Zone'! You may no longer have sex with your spouse, view or posess adult-orientened materials, or in any other way act in a manner unsuitable for viewing by a 13 year old child. You have to live with these new restrictions, or sell your land and home (at a severe loss) and move to a private island where they still allow free action as adults. Have a nice day!"

It simply wont happen , though I do think if it was done properly it could be a good thing as far as education goes and it would also show the real world that SL is not just used by old people to cheat on their RL partners.
The fact is though that LL would be totally incapable of the responsibility of dealing with it properly , see the mess they make as far as reporting abuse goes , well see the mess they make of a lot of things really, one of the few things they have done well on is to get rid of most of the pedos which they deserve credit for and for them to risk going back on that would be very sad.
Merging the grids would open the doors to more sinister types than sexual ageplay , you then have a high risk of adults "grooming" children for real life meetings.Which is a terrifying prospect .Lindens totally fail when it comes to abuse reports (I actually got suspended when one of my object interceptors bumped in to a guy that was firing cages at me !) They have proved that they cant treat abuses properly so how can they possibly expect to be responsible for childrens safety ? On top of that the only people that could report it in the first place (assuming the "grooming" is by IM ) is the child itself which could be hard for them.
It is simply impossible for LL to make SL a safe place for children , its too annonymos , PN cant be stopped from getting in to SL time after time so why would pedos be any different ?
2 days ago in a PG linden sandbox I saw gay porn all over my screen , swastikas and chat spam telling me to kill the jews , you really think kids will learn a lot from that ?

Personaly I think this is probably just a totally fake rumour , LL would not contemplate this unless they have totally lost it .

Which is why it's a horrible idea.

Sounds so bad that LL might actually do it.

/me tries to remember ever meeting a guy between the ages of 13 and 18 that did not have girls on the mind..
or decide to go to secondlife to play a shoot'em up over the lastest and greatest shoot'em up game out there that all the others are playing..
ya they'll come to sl for that over battlefield

I haven't read the responses so apologies in advance if any of this has already been stated.

I hope you have good lawyers LL because if you allow this, the first person who is wrongfully accused is going to have a field day (and rightfully so). This is unbelievably irresponsible and just plain dumb on your part.

Be careful everyone.

And bring back Daniel Linden to be in charge.

It's a horrible idea to let teens onto the main grid. This is an adult grid and we should not be forced to change our actions or words to allow for them being here. To the people who have known children on the grid in the past who did not AR them, shame on you.

At the very least, children's name tags should be in a different colour, so at least we know who they are.

Come on LL, rethink this or I see major problems ahead.

This is beyond lame.... if LL does this they might as well rename the grid "NAMBLA-grid"...

Two problems.

1. Even if they don't come into SL (and the apparent failure of the Teen Grid suggests most won't) the damage will be done in the Disneyfication of the grid.

2. "girls on the mind..." What do you think the ones who do come here will be looking for? That can't be good.

Or the ever popular... Super Adventure Club

The only way to make "safe areas" is to create sims in which the teens and adults are kept from interacting and you end up with a teen grid within the main grid that is just as segregated, so who are we kidding there?

Other methods like identifying "teens" on the main grid or restricting where they can go but also allowing adults there is like painting a big fat target on them. Although we don't have a predator problem on the main grid that's only becuase there is currently no opportunity for interaction between adult and child, once there is the opportunity then that will change.

Of the many "communities" on the internet most have some sort of reporting / control in place to try and stop predators getting at the children, but they are all pretty much after the fact and too little too late. Linden's revolutionary approach was to segregate us which is why I have never seen in the press that a child was groomed via secondlife. I have however seen reports that it has been done via facebook, myspace etc etc. Given the time spent on those community sites versus the time that would be spent on SL doesn't the risk and the amount of time someone has for grooming increase exponentially?

A predator only has to set up a location that particularly appeals to teens and they have a captive audience. You can rent land all over the main grid just by paying a rent box, it's quick, anonymous, can be set up in no time and gone just as fast. Couple that with operating multiple alternate avatars, multiple PCs with different IP addresses etc and you can see that predators will be hard to catch. They already have experience of avoiding detection and eluding authorities and I would imagine that similar measures would redily transfer to SL.

I would say to Linden Labs that this would be the single most stupid move that they can do and it would become the biggest issue ever for them. They may try to put positive spin on it saying that they are integrating communities responsibly, but the fact is that it WILL create an environment that will be more attractive to predators and the predators always seem to find a way where there is ready access to minors.

I for one don't want to have to wonder if the person I am interacting with is a minor and that's part of the beauty of SL as it stands, I don't have to.

i am at the mindset that it is not beyond LL to take it all away and make it safe for the merge..
i don't see mature and pg sims i just see sims with no rating because the whole grid will be pg..

at first i was in the mindset that they would be getting into all kinds of trouble because there is this whole section of mature that these kids would be even closer to..

then after reading a lot of post and reading some articles ..this would be a bad move LL or you put the kids at risk LL or you put us at risk.even myself saying it at first..i realize the easiest solution is to dump mature content rather than revamp the whole system..they have dumped content before for changes..

it's gonna be rules added not and things taken away..not some new protection system in place..because the direction they want to go is in the direction you mention..
a sort of disney safe place..
sex sells inside of sl ..it hurts the daylights out of it on the outside of it..

they want a wholesome sl for investers and the future..we are the beta they are the gama

so maybe we'll be looking for alphas after all lol

I had a parcel in a PG sim once, one day I noticed a gentleman's club on the neighbouring parcel. Thinking this wasn't right I went to check the land and that's when I realised I was at the sim border, the neighbouring parcel was on a mature sim.

um "hide selected" would make your wall invisible.

sorry i wasn't meaning right now..i am talking about the future and mature being gone altogether..
i just don't see how the direction they are wanting to go has room for mature content and kids and then all these education places looking at even thinking of giving sl a shot..
i don't think they will get the time of day with mature content in here..
thats my opinion anyways and i'm gonna hold onto my money until LL at least gives us some kind of an idea..