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

I don't know if this is has been addressed yet but that would suck. there are mature places that would be awesome for kids, the harry potter sims, nemo beach, any place that you can shoot zombies at. maybe if they can just make a category for places that rl and sl kids can't go they can lock rl kids out of it and I'll stop accidentally going to places that I really don't want to be because I was trying to find something else in a search like a prim baby script and it wasn't clearly marked mature content.

Here's a thought:

Why don't LL simply *improve the kid grid*?

Whatever kids want that is on the SL main grid - Harry Potter and some of the other things beatrix Muircastle just named - put them on the kid grid.

I'd think there would be *huge* marketing potential in so doing, as well. More 'positive cash flow'? Good thing - no?

Just seems the most sensible solution all-round.

from what i gather the biggest problem is powering the grids..
if i heard it right anyways.

Because they have enough problems trying to run one grid well?

It's not that the sims' builds are great, so moving them to the teen grid wouldn't help.

It's the roleplay at the Harry Potter sims that attracts people. As far as I know, it's strictly PG (or maybe PG-13, by MPAA standards), but I doubt the current participants would be thrilled to play with 13 yo inexperienced roleplayers. On the other hand, there's no reason a 16yo with roleplay experience should be excluded from that set of sims.

Sriously thinking of teens today coz I was working wiht a few really talented ones last week on an funded arts program - I really think Teens in the main grid would be a great idea.
I know , I know. I said keep them out, BUT suely we can come to an arrangement with teens? The ones I met (I was kinda advising and NOT implementing anything with the real teens) know just as much as I did when I was their age about the facts of life and creepies and all teh rest.
They have great ideas. They are activists. They have ideals. They have all teh things we must admire.
Let them join us.
Welcome!

The problem isn't the teens, it's the medieval laws in the US.

It's really not just the US, and in fact it's not even laws, themselves consequences of the real problem: mass hysteria. A fully-merged grid poses unacceptable risks of false accusations against adults.

It's bad enough in RL, where any adult can be accused by any minor of anything and immediately presumed guilty, but at least in RL there's not (yet) the presumption that all adults are inherently guilty before being accused. In contrast, there's an a priori assumption that anybody using SL must be a despicable pervert anyway, so any random accusation will stick. It works pretty much the same way with all the MyFaceSpaceBook services, too, although I suspect SL is perceived as even more incriminating.

Then just one public pedophile case stemming from SL and that already damning reputation would be deadly. Careers could be ruined just by being accused of having an SL account.

I've spoken with one educator who has already left the profession in RL and several others who are considering leaving because of the current witch-hunt hysteria, even though none of them have ever been themselves accused of anything. A cruel twist of the knife is that educators can't protect themselves because the damage is done before laws are even applied--in contrast to medicine where malpractice insurance protects against even proven accusations.

To be practical about it, we're all vulnerable anyway, with or without a merged grid, and with or without SL. It would just be tempting fate to multiply those vulnerabilities by fully merging the grids.

All that said, I still hope there's some way to improve the SL experience for teens, and to provide some very controlled mixed-population areas for things like classrooms that necessarily span age groups. But the controls have to work. Trying to make them work over the entire Main Grid is just hopeless, no matter what policies are adopted.

It's not even the mass hysteria. It's the phobia that people have as a result of the mass hysteria around a small number of sensational cases. The cases where a minor accuses someone but recants upon questioning never make the news.


On the one hand, it's not just accusations by minors; consider Larry Craig.

On the other hand, do you have examples of this happening to people who use MySpace or FaceBook?


Sure, there are specific careers in which it would be inappropriate or could lead to job problems - a priest, someone studying for the priesthood, some political offices. I suppose some school districts might consider it inappropriate, questionable, or unprofessional. But that's not enough to dictate policy. MySpace has already had such a public case, but we don't see careers being ruined from having a MySpace page, nor do we see MySpace rigidly keeping minors and adults from interacting.


I understand and appreciate why some people would choose to do that. Frankly, while I've done a lot of volunteering, I've always avoided volunteer work involving kids - but I came out in the 70s, and it's hard to shake ingrained fears. That doesn't make it a reason to influence SL policy. There are already people who wouldn't join SL because of its association with sex, but I don't see anyone here arguing that all sex should be banned in SL just to make it safe for the people who wouldn't join otherwise.

Some of those cases get some limited news treatment, but it's certainly true that most don't, and in either case the damage is already done. That is, I don't really see it as phobia to be afraid of lynch mobs, even if there's not a lynch mob around every corner. The old saw "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me."
I don't think I'm understanding. AFAIK, Larry Craig was accused of something (technically) illegal that actually happened; granted, it hurt his public career out of all proportion to the legal infraction itself--perhaps that's the point?--somewhat similar to Olympic gold medal swimmers caught in compromising juxtaposition to a bong. It seems to me that the special vulnerability of a public figure to any scandal is roughly analogous to everyone's vulnerability to the "special scandal" of accused abuse of a minor.

Yes, this really is the essence of the matter, I think: Can SL so rehabilitate its reputation that it can similarly mix minors and adults? I believe this to be wishful thinking, and that just Disneyfying the Main Grid would not be enough to keep this from backfiring spectacularly.

Part of it is the existing reputation, but another part is the very nature of the medium. It's real-time social interaction with (marginally) compelling animated 3D representations of human anatomy. And the general populace is already primed to accept some interplay between the real and the virtual--and to ascribe some unwholesomeness to that.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about that. Fear is never a nice reason, but when the fear is real (as I believe this to be) it can be reason enough.

Even when the minor recants that doesn't put things back where they were for the victim, once the mob gets in the loop, and in SL the mob's already sniffing around.
There aren't many careers it wouldn't hurt, for years, if there was ANY kind of media attention.

There's a big difference between letting a child get a boo-boo themsleves for a learning experience (good parenting) and letting them run around a working warehouse where they could potentially knock something over onto an unsuspecting employee or paying customer (no parenting/entitlemoo parenting).

duh lol

There is also nothing preventing a self centered and arrogant adult who is so absorbed in their desires and thoughts to do the same thing...

I agree this is an issue of trust etc. I realize all generations are misxing out here and SL is losing credibility as a virtuality.
I know get heated on forums but I sincerely think we can make this work. My maturity levels are never teh best in discussions but even I see benefits from youth here.

Could a one-time group of teens be allowed on as a test group and polled a month later by Lindens?

Jig: you seem to be missing the fundamental point here.

It's not the kids that are the issue. It's the laws.

The difference being that if an adult does it they are responsible. If your kid spills oil on the floor and someone slips and breaks their back, guess who is paying the medical bills.

The irresponsable parent

You overestimate the responsibility of the vast majority of parents. Most parents given the situation would screech, "My little Billy would never do anything like that, how DARE you accuse him of that!"

lol where do you get your information??TV?
Because we know that responsible adult that is there all by themselves and breaks something or spills something is NOT gonna look around to see if anyone saw them and just slide away from the scene..

The adult would do the right thing and find the first person that works there so they can have it taken care of right away..

ya right lol
my dealings with contractors and building supply houses all over the mid west and the south setting up local accounts for our crews.. I get to meet a lot of the people that work for these places and some of the stories they tell me about people trying to hide something they damaged are just too funny..

One man spilling contact cement used on counter tops didn't realize his jacket would stick to him and his hands and was so scared he went to the front and finally confessed to busting a can open and trying to clean the mess up..He asked if they had somethign that could get him seperated from his jacket lol.

he said he panicked for a moment and grabbed his jacket to hide it when he thought someone was coming..then pulled it away after he had gotten it on him..then panicked again and it made the bond on the second hug hahahahahaha

it was like he was in a crazy jacket hahahahahahaa

I used to work for a school district (which is partly why I hate kids now). The reality of the situation is that most parents shouldn't be.

LOL yes that does explain why you would be tired of kids hehehe

there is a lot of over crowding in some schools and yes some people should not be parents..
that or they should be held more accountable than they are now days..then maybe they would see there is more to being a parent than just having a baby..

too many leap into it at a young age..myself i may have kids..i'm not sure..but i will make sure i am ready to and not because it is some pattern to follow..
right now the world is no place i would want to bring my child into..I doubt it will ever be good enough for that at the rate we are going..

Well you may never have kids at that rate because most people are never ready. It is just something you decide to do. I'm glad i had my kids at 23 & 24 instead of in my now 30's. And i was not ready...I was in the Navy. But you make ready after the fact to the best of your ability (is your a good person) and continue to do so as long as they are with you i suppose.

where i live there are a lot getting married right out of high school and getting divorced with kids at 23 & 24,25 realizing cool man was not what he was cracked up to be and must find support man now..

i chose not to follow that pattern and decided to build a career in business so that i can be as ready as possible so that if for some reason there were a divorce i am not struggling like the ones going after husbands by the time we were in middle school..

i have no doubt about raising my own children..i am raising my nephews now..i just don't know if i like where the world is heading and feel if it gets even worse i would not want to bring children in it..who is to say how i feel a couple years from now..

right now the country is way to unstable and unsure of it's own direction..

If that happens SL i bet will land on future internet filters, as many know from my country there is atm a discussion to force ISP's to filter content...a light version of whats china is doing.

LL has to look on laws from everywhere, before they can do such things...or sooner or later sl will be usa only again...without europe, germany and other european states who are involved into the internet filter discussion or similar discussions.

i bet that would kill SL instantly if europe is out...even germany + othr followers would hurt the SL Eco.