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

that would be great if someone could find a way..
i love the grid the way it is now and don't want to lose what we have..
i just don't think people will miss the adult content if it wasn't here when they got here is all..
the ones that would miss it would be us that have been here and know what was gone..
LL is gonna do what they want their way..
in my opinion we are just burping gas if we think we are changing their minds from where they want to go.
we'll leave and new people will come to replace us like always..
and i hope thats not the direction it goes...

When I said "fix all the software issues that have been raised", I meant "fix _all_ the software issues that have been raised". Whether they have the will to do so is another story, but this was a response to what their choices were.


It's also been stated repeatedly that 100% reliability is a non-goal. The purpose of age verification is to act as a legal shield, not to keep 100% of the minors off the grid.


This wasn't about what they can do now, it was about the future. The whole thread is about the future.


Once upon a time, existing Mainland property owners bought their land with the understand that they could operate casinos. Once upon a time, existing OpenSpace property owners bought their land with the understanding that they could have a certain number of prims. Once upon a time, existing property owners bought their land with the understanding that LL could change the rules at any time.

You're right, they won't be pleased. History has shown that that has never stopped LL before.


Same one who compensated landowners in the past. Or perhaps you will, since you're the one advising them about legal rights that may not actually exist.

In this context, x-rated is being used as shorthand to describe content that is illegal to make available without suitable safeguards to keep it from minors, where 'suitable' does not mean 100% perfect. At a minimum, it would mean as defined by US law, but it could be defined by the strictest of SL's major markets (i.e., including Europe, Japan, and some others but not including certain fundamentalist countries in Asia and elsewhere).

No, it's not a great idea, it's a rotten idea. Exile all adult content on the main grid to private islands so that all three users of Teen SL can have free access to the main grid?

If Teen SL isn't viable, kill it. Don't inflict everything that's wrong with it onto the users of the main grid.

I have family back in the midwest, they think a girl in a bikini is a sin. So do we stoop to that level? (yes I was the black sheep)

the new SLfashion will be a burlap sack with no bodily features, a head with nothing but a big smilely face, and clown feet.

When the merger happens and the strictest interpretations of "adult content" as defined in any nation from which SL can be accessed go into force, all female avatars may pick up a freebie burkah from vending stations located at the Welcome Areas. Male avatars will be on their own to secure flexi-prim beards.

>.> When I first joined a few days ago, I saw mentions of "PG" and thought that there were already areas for kids on this game. The literal meaning of the rating "PG" is "Parental Guidance suggested" after all. (I admit I probably didn't read the ToS as thoroughly as I should have, considering it was waaaaay past my usual sleep time when I signed up...and I was slightly drunk.)

That said, I don't really think there would be that much of an issue if the teens were kept to PG areas, and had...for instance...a white or blue name to indicate that they are under 18, instead of the yellow ones we have now. That way there won't be any of that "did you ask if they're legal or not?" issue, and the adults can just choose not to interact with those that are not of age.

no that is not what i said..is that how you saw my whole post or did you not read the rest?
that was a reply to some miracle age verification..

i am in no way in favor of this merge one bit.

But..we already know the merge is coming..We can complain all day and night and throw 100 more pages in this thread as to why it shouldn't happen..it's not gonna change anything..
it's gonna happen..

myself i came to grips with that back on page 17 lol..now i'm worried how it's gonna happen and are we gonna be stripped of a lot of freedoms we have now or will they split the grid??

it didn't sound like a split the way it was recorded..
i am just hoping we get to keep that kind of content on our islands..

I vote for split the grid. When the free range RL kiddies arrive along with all their potential for drama and false accusations of improper behavior, a lot of us adults will split the grid for other venues.

i'm just gonna wait and see what happens and deal with it then

If it happens it will be the end of Second Life.

thank god we have a spare hehehehe

Uh, is anyone still buying this story or have we all realized it will NEVER happen?

I dunno.

Since coming here in 2005, the whole "we're merging the adult & teen grid" stuff has always been around.

I'll believe it when I see it

that's the thing..we don't have a time so i'm not sweating it anymore lol

First they screw up the competitive marketing by taking over OnRez and XStreets , and then announcing they are shuting down OnRez ...... but now they are going to put kids in the adult grid. They have lost their damn minds. Please for the love of god Devs.... wake up and get some damn sense. If they Teen Grid isnt making money then shut it down... .but dont give them access to the main grid. Its wrong. I'm 40 and dont want to have to worry if the person I'm talking too is 14. I'm appalled that this is even being considered.

No matter how LL try to protect themselves legally, they will always be seen as guilty in the press and the court of public opinion.
If they merge the grids then LL might be some safety from violators in the US, but there will be nothing to stop people in obscure countries from creating alts and pedeling porn to the US underaged. Passing the buck and telling the violated teens parents they should persue legal action against JackOff6789 in Mongolia just doesn't fly. The blame will eventually come back to LL.

Possibly. But they may be entering the phase of "publish and be damned".

Well by censoring content... they can't claim common carrier like an isp..

No, I'm talking about minors legally on the grid in the merged instance, getting contacted by a pedo and winding up meeting them in RL, being attacked and/or killed as a result
and SL being sued by the parents and worse.

Whether the teen lied about her age or not isnt an issue- minors cannot legally sign contracts and are not held responsible.
A suit doesnt have to be *won* for it to cause severe damage, it only has to be filed, whether it wins or loses doesn't matter, the liability insurance company and so on would be looking at that with a magnifying glass as to POTENTIAL losses and act according to POTENTIAL. That is how thousands of public venues, events, sporting events, rides, entertainment and all sorts of things have been regulated and priced out of business in RL- the liability and insurance costs got so high they closed down.

I was on a message forum a few years ago, health related, the owner, a Doctor, became afraid that a minor would be contacted by a pedo via private IM's or email using his forum, and that he could be held liable. He checked with his attorney as I remember, and decided to totally cap the use of the I'M and private messaging system, and then shortly after that he shut the whole thing down as being too much of a risk. 5,000 users were deleted when he shut it down.

There were no incidents, no reports, no complaints, no suits even filed, all it took was his FEAR of being sued to shut the entire thing down.

LL might make age verification mandatory & put some kinda "flag" field in profiles, so we can see who's verified over the age of 18...that would eliminate some of the confusion about who's who.

...of course some people hate age verification & it would make new users have to always give credit card info. Merging the grids at all sounds like a hare-brained idea to me...there's no way to even keep underage avs out of certain Mature regions, you can still cam into the region from outside, & a lot of mainland counts as Mature, patched together in hodge-podge patterns between PG areas. This just looks like a big mess so far.

I don't know who Phillip Linden's been talking to, but I haven't heard one single person say they would rather spend time with thier kid on the grid instead of having a separate adult SL.

Quote:
Who is going to compensate the landowners whose legal rights to use that content which you want to restrict would this be abridged? Who will pay to relocate them? Will you?"

There's no such thing as a land "owner" or legal "rights" on Second life, we are all land RENTERS, you do not own land you can take off the grid and put on a competitor's server. if your account is terminated for any reason your land and inventory you paid for all goes bye bye, if you don't pay the monthly fee, same deal- your stuff goes away into the electronic bit bucket in the sky w/o any recourse whatsoever- read the user agreement it says as much.

SL is a game, it is a service you are paying an access fee to use, you do not actually own land like you do in real life.


Here are some relevant portions of the TOS which covers this and more;

Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to suspend or terminate your Account, terminate this Agreement, and/or refuse any and all current or future use of the Service without notice or liability to you. In the event that Linden Lab suspends or terminates your Account or this Agreement, you understand and agree that you shall receive no refund or exchange for any unused time on a subscription, any license or subscription fees, any content or data associated with your Account, or for anything else.


You agree that Linden Lab has the absolute right to manage, regulate, control, modify and/or eliminate such Currency as it sees fit in its sole discretion, in any general or specific case, and that Linden Lab will have no liability to you based on its exercise of such right.

Linden Lab reserves the right to interrupt the Service with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason. You agree that Linden Lab will not be liable for any interruption of the Service, delay or failure to perform

age verification provides zero protection for people

It's why you are still carded at the bar in a club where there are bouncers checking id's at the door.

by limiting the grid to adults, there is legal protection for those on the grid (and to LL)

In the MySpace case, the fact that she lied in order to get onto MySpace was really a minor factor. She could have been legally in MySpace, and MySpace still would have won the suit.


MySpace is still in business in spite of the suit. Do you think that LL is closer to MySpace or this doctor in terms of being willing and able to defend against such a suit? in terms of being afraid of such suits?

Why do you think you have better legal protection is LL simply has a policy of prohibiting minors on the main grid, versus you having a policy of not engaging in adult activities with anyone who isn't age-verified? Neither process - the age verification system nor the requirement of saying you're over 18 before signing up - is foolproof.