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

theyre here already.. or just allowed into the welcome area.. ? 0.o

Aditi is the beta grid.

oooh ok.
but the main grid will need a lot of either cleaning up .. or some severe restrictions on destinations before they can let them loose
(unless there is to be a sudden announcement of general PGness ala LL MO)

Isnt this getting blown out of proportion?

Wat is teh definition of "teen"? Is it 13 and up? Or any one of any age?
The only problem here is -will teens appear as teens or as adults?

Will anyone really leave sl because of it? I doubt if people who have invested in land and belongings etc will leave. I wont leave because a few teens have come to the world. They are real teens so we must treat them as such.

Teens are okay - they arent gonna make a huge diffrence to sl. Yes there may be legal issues but surely we can work through these. Most of us are not gonna be seeking out teens on teh grid. And we must learn to trust their judgements also.I say let them on. Let teh parents monitor their presence. Let's make a responible approach. Keep sl as it is with redefined sims (PG is so patronizing anyway - if we are all supposed to be over 18 we never needed Parental guidance anyway). If we own Mature land now lets just make our ban lines secure and remember that everyone coming here must be aware of teh risks coming online to sl entails.

This mania for defining our sims must stop. Let teh teens be aware that there are mature areas. Let their parents know this. It is not our responsibility to be guardians of other people's children. We do not act "in loco parentis".

Besides PG is ridiculous rating at present when we are all over 18 (supposedly). If people are offended by what they see - just move on.

i certainly dont want to make my sim PG.. and would probably scream long loud and lewdly if they tried to make me...

but its estate...

but .. this being LL i shouldnt feel complacent.. they do do things without warning..

i can almost imagine waking up one day to an announcement..

<all things of a sexual nature are now not allowed. Please delete all your genitals, beds, poseballs, whips.. etc etc and so on and so forth>

Well that's just it, what's going to flag them as teens so those of us who don't want to take on the risk inherent in associating with them -- i.e., being presumptively dubbed a pedophile -- can prevent them from accessing our lands, homes, shops, and clubs?

Trust teens' judgments? That makes me LOL. The whole basis of the "age of majority" marking the adult / child divide is that a child's judgments can not be trusted.

well if you're not a pedophile you got nothing to be afraid of, be natural.

I don't trust most adult's judgment...

The difference is an adult normally does not have the power to destroy your life with false accusations like someone under the age of 18 can

A petulant child can.


The only way to make the adult grid kid/teen friendly is to turn it into a clone of the teen grid with all it's rules and restrictions...

The only way to really merge the grids would be to kill the adult grid and start fresh on the teen grid...

But it still leaves the adults walking on eggshells when it comes to dealing with possible interaction with some spoiled little kid with too much power to destroy lives.

Is this the equivalent of Godwin's Law? Pedophiles are the new Nazis?

How about the adult places you enjoy being ruined in the name of making the grid kid safe?

And the grid becoming a wasteland of RL corporate advertising.

Just waiting for the day we log in and see "Second Life... sponsored by Disney World"

Now found outside my Pub.

Perhaps not quite that, but I do see Welcome areas with billboards, RL companies setting up shop in gneral view, and TOS changes that will have LL do like Facebook and start giving user info to marketers. There is no way an all ages SL won't be a marketing bonanza, and any company would be stupid not to take advantage of it from a business perspective. Also with a large influx of population, there is the possibility of the RL's using freebies as part of this, which will make the masses happy, and drive our own creators and businesses under.

Tell that to the teachers et al who've had lives, careers and mental health destroyed by irresponsible gossip and rumour, or by the malicious accusations of some stroppy youngster. It does happen.

People's RLs could be at risk from the antics of kids if they're let on the Main Grid to do as they will.

--
Aes

I'll be using that on the Promiscuous. Great sign!

Just to make a quick post before I head off to get some sleep. I have been on imvu 3d chat since September 2006. When I first joined there everything was wonderful the client ran fast and without crashing. Adults were allowed to be adults. Now however the client runs worse than second life ever does, paying adults are ignored in favor of teens who spend nothing mostly I'm sure. My point on this subject is I came here so I could be treated like an adult without having to watch what I do because of teenagers. Should this place become like imvu is more than likely my spending here will cease as might my account.

If the teen's are allowed to come to the adult sim I will send LL a bill for my babysitting fees.
I am a financial member ( waits to be attacked on that one ) I own land and i spend up big like many do, so if i have to watch what i say and do , hence babysitting the kiddies , I will expect my expenditure reduced by $25USD an hour.

Many free members( not all ) will admit they wont spend their own money they will take all the freebies, they camp and if they spend they use money that is in the game. You think Teens are going to spend cause bottom line is LL want $$$$

What puzzles me about this whole situation is *why* would LL want to do this? They risk alienating (even more) their current (paying) adult customers. I can't imagine that teens would have that much disposable income that they would want to spend inworld. Most have plenty of RL expenses that they'd be better off spending their limited income on.

This means that inworld merchants and RL companies that may want to come in and market to the under-18 crowd have very little to gain. So, let's see... add customers that *won't* be bringing in much revenue, and risk losing customers that *do* bring in revenue... oh yeah, that makes sense.

I've heard that they want to allow parents to be able to spend time with their kids online. Fine - then verify the parents and let them on the teen grid. Maybe create some kind of "family membership package". Personally, I can't imagine that many teens that would want to hang out with their parents instead of peers, but I could be wrong.

Education? Do you really think teens will be interested in spending their online time sitting in a virtual classroom? I think not.

For the ones that turned 18 and can't hang out with their under-18 friends anymore... tough... things change when you become an adult. Get used to it. Explore the brave new world of being a grownup

What adds to the frustration for me (and I'm sure others) is the fact that LL appears to be moving towards a change like this, and the residents who have invested time and money in this platform - and will be affected by this change - have no way to bring this matter to the Lindens for discussion.

Hello, are there any Lindens out there listening?

They plan on making up for the loss of users in volume. Some will leave, but a lot won't. Adding in the teens and parents and families, but also once SL is cleaned up and goes mainstream, a whole lot more people will probably be apt to try it, once it's shedded it's raunchy rep. And those people will be marketed to, heavily. Plus, those who want a more Private experience will be funnelled to private sims, which I bet will see their fees increase dramatically thanks to supply and demand.IF, and it's a big IF given their record, they do it right, SL will be the cash cow they want.

Thing is, the teens won't be offended by what they see. THey'll be interested and want to participate in the adult/mature areas of SL, figure a way around the checks, and voila, before you know it, you are interacting inappropriately with a teenager. *shudder* . Their parents will be the ones screaming about it, calling the police and ruining your RL life, because their kid figured a way to interact inappropriately with adults in adult areas/scenarios.

I was giving this a lot of thought again the other day after seeing Baffin in Aditi. First I should point out that Marianne clarified that for me. Baffin is an old sim that is here in the MG and it serves as the welcome point when teens turn 18. But back to what I was thinking...................... Like a teenagers room, there was stuff rezzed all over the place in those handful of sims, all created by teens. I must admit that some of the builds were quite impressive. I still do not think I would allow my daughter into SL MG when she turns 13 for the reasons I mentioned earlier. But to have a fresh influx of creativity that has been shielded from the MG and basically has evolved independently would be very interesting. I would also expect a crowd that would be very hungry for learning opportunities both in world and here in the forums. I would still prefer it not to happen and if it does I would expect quite a few problems and I will still fear for the safety of the young but.................. It would still be quite an interesting social experiment to see if it does happen.

I would agree that LL will survive and might even come out of it stronger. SL Doom & Gloom has been preached widely for every reason you can possibly think of since it first started, and yet it is still here and still steadily growing.

Please pardon my laziness (995 posts before this one). Can I get a recap? Are they in or out? Do I need to hide my toys or demand ID from everyone that walks past my door?
TVM