Underage residents.

I'm sorry if this was talked about in an earlier post but I didn't find any so here goes.

Daily and yes I hear this daily now of underage users. I've always reported them when I find them but I think our underage users are getting smart to not saying their age. Anyway it seems more and more underage users are here, in your sims, roleplay and maybe in your bed. Today I was asked in IM "have sex me please" and I thought maybe he couldn't speak English very well or he was simply retarded (special for those that hate the retarded word). But after a little while ignoring him I decided to ask where he was from and he said "USA". Hmmmm.... So I asked him how old he was and he said answered "25". That's the entire conversation. Now it might seem I'm a little paranoid and maybe I am but that doesn't mean (no I'm not going to say it.) there aren't underage teens in free sex sims and no I wasn't so stop laughing. Some think SL is a free sex game. So after all that what to do? Will LL make age check a requirement? Will SL just become a giant PG place? (Why does Linden Lab call it PG when that means "parental guidance? Doesn't that give the wording a legal loop hole saying SL for adults is okay with parental guidance?) Will someone end up in prison for corrupting, endangering or contributing to the delinquency of a minor (what does that mean anyway?) I guess the only answer is to not be sexual in SL which isn't a problem for me because I'm a slut. Well a very picky slut and what I mean by that is I'm a prude.

Possibly. SL has their ass covered and sluffed the rest off to us. It's best to assume every person in SL is underaged.......and act accordingly. It is possible that you could get dragged into some nasty court proceedings and if convicted (even if you did not know the person you were interacting with was under the legal age of consent) you are labeled a "sex offender". I quit dancing in SL for that very reason.

You're being paranoid. Do you know of any examples of someone being prosecuted for online communications where the other party claimed to be an adult? There are lots of cases of people being prosecuted for RL meetings for someone they believe to be a minor (but is really an undercover cop). But I've never heard of anyone prosecuted for cybersex with a minor pretending to be an adult.

I think that once you start chatting you should be able to discern if a person is a child or not.

And I stopped buying things in SL for the same reason... after all any sales person can be a crook and can be after your money only.
And walking on the roads, many over speeders there....
Not even to mention the bars and nightclubs in SL!

What I am trying to say is, yes there are underage people in SL. And when you are very sure someone is under aged, you should report him/her (and speaking not or bad English is not really a reason... ).
But as in real life, I refuse to see after every door a thief or imposer. I am in SL to have fun and relax, not to be on a witch hunt.

I don't think anyone mentioned anything that would be considered a "witch hunt" in SL. Not yet anyway. I merely said that it's possible for someone to be accused of having inappropriate associations with a minor and could be dragged into some legal mess. Linden Lab won't go to bat for you and you are on your own should that happen. It only takes the mere accusation to start the ball rolling............or some irrate parent who catches their 13 year old "playing house" with someone in SL. Who wants to chance that?

So, I'll continue to treat everyone the same..........as if they are a child. I don't take Second Life seriously anyway so it's easy for me to do that.

I love the word retarded. I'd assume someone was a retard before I'd assume they were under age.

Allow me to preface the following with the fact that this avatar (Shelley) does not engage in sexual activities in SL (for reasons that would be evident if you knew her in-world or possibly even read her profile). I have had at least one (adult) avatar, previously, that did engage in "pixel sex", so I'm basing this conversation on that experience.

1. If someone just walked up to my adult av and directly asked for sex, whether the request was a succinctly and properly formed question or not, I would refuse anyway, just as I would in real life.

2. The visual part of "pixel sex" in SL is, at best, not really erotic (with a rare few exceptions). This is based on the mechanics of having poseballs properly align the parties regardless of their respective heights among other factors. The avatar mesh itself lends many positions rather clumsy looking, at best.

3. This leaves the fact that any eroticism to be gained by such an act is primarily contingent upon both parties being able to more than adequately describe, in text, such things as what they are doing, how they are feeling, etc. Otherwise, given item #2, the whole act is a bore for most adults.

If you get past all three of those items and the act itself is actually very enjoyable, then there are pretty good odds you are having sexxors with an avatar being controlled by a real life adult.

In other words, after sufficient conversation, both out of the sack and in, most adults can fairly easily ascertain if their partner at least appears, for all intents and purposes, to be an adult. This does still leave open the possibility that the other person is, in fact, a very intelligent and fluent underage user.

My personal opinion is, with no tangible evidence to the contrary, one must assume that the person on the other end is of proper age to be on the adult grid. If they are not, I would not think any type of legal action could be taken against you as you are playing by the guidelines and TOS of SL which states that people signing up for the adult grid are basically giving their word that they are of legal age to do so. I would think that not only covers LL's collective butts, but yours as well. (Not to mention that the current age verification process is nowhere near an adequate defense and you have really no means to verify whether or not the other person is age verified anyway).

And there is a millionaire woman from the 80's who burned her tender lips on a cup of hot coffee from McDonalds fast food resteurant. Who'd have thought that a cup of hot liquid would ever burn a tender lip?

You take the chance..........not me, thanks.

Excellent response!!

9 times out of 10 they're a retard looking for attention

Actually, she won the the case, then lost the case.

For once the court system worked.

The point is anyone can bring it to a court.......and you are on your own if they do. LL has no safeguards in place to even remotely protect anyone from a frivilace suit or even a criminal complaint. All that has to happen is for someone with the means to contact a lawyer (or law enforcement agency) and ball is rolling. If it's your avatar named (either falsely or correctly) LL is bound by law to deliver all pertinent information if a court asks for it. Pixel sex is not illegal........but "inappropriate" conversations (and/or acts) with a minor is. You, if named, will have to prove you did not know (or suspect) the person you acted inappropriately with was underage. It's your word against the accusers words.........and the chat logs or other information supplied by Linden Lab under court order.

At best it would be an expensive experience...........not to mention stressful. At worse you could wind up with a sex crime conviction.

Now, someone tell me it's worth it.

Really? This is a topic?

With all due respect to the OP, if you didn't jump on a poseball with people you don't know than this wouldn't even be a topic
You come across as a pretentious busy body who is seeking attention by focusing this topic on a subject we have rehashed 6000 times. Your efforts at stating that you searched the forums for similar topics were mearly an excuse to thrust yourself into the limelight. If you truly researched, this topic would have showed up dozens of times.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why people worry about such meaningless topics, such trivial problems that affect the very few in SL ... If you have a moral obligation that makes your soul somehow feel better about itself, more power to you but you stated your intentions in SL so do whatever it is you need to do to get off and find a NEW agenda to make your existence relative. Yep, you might have pixel sex with a minor, if this is the best you can do to get your rocks off, you have bigger issues than the potential someone might be underage. I would suggest focusing on your real life and letting Linden Lab police the grid. The fact is, if someone SAYS they are an adult than the law is on your side. Don't worry so much about sex and find all the other great SL events going on! Exploring is a lost art

If you're really worried about go to porn site and take care of it yourself and don't hop on pose ball.

You mean this case?

QFT
/me waves hello to Morwen

Lots of good advice here. The threat of prosecution is very real. Best to avoid all sexual relationships in SL. There is no way of knowing the true age or the sex of your partner. Certainly avoid dancing. In fact, its probably best not to even talk to anyone.

TPing can be dangerous too. Who knows what you might find when you arrive? SL is full of griefers. Even walking around can be dangerous. The safest thing is to just stand in one place and look around you.

Enjoy your Second life.

I assume that a fair number of residents are under-age RLs. I've no particular evidence for this, just that it's easy to join SL and presumably it would appeal to under-age people just like it does to over 18s.

No - there are (still) some memory leaks in the viewer which can freeze, lock up and crash if you just stand still looking around. I've avoid that, if I were you.

Matthew

now, that's interesting because on the whole I assume everyone I meet is 40 years old + in real life, for I am certain that most people in my friends list are at least 35 years old. maybe my friends list is unusual, I know a lot are real life artists, gallerists, business men/women with their own company etc. of course there are a few avatars I have met that I think are very immature, but sometimes I realise it's only because their first language isn't English, or very rarely they are just complete moronic 20 year old boys.

Yet in every case nothing is done to the individuals who break laws (identity theft, forgery, and plain fraud) in order to access the services underage.

I put the blame on the media for that. The media loves a good "victim" story.

Kind of like all those teens that run away to meet some guy/woman from MySpace.

WTF??? No one bothered to ask "Why is a 13 yr old running away from home" or "How Does a 13 yr old travel across country without the parents knowing it?"

Wow you actually came into a post on a subject you care nothing for just to bash me for posting? Nice work. You get the Forum Troll of the week awards. Here's you're cookies!!

Not meaning to bash here, but how one can be both a slut and a prude?

Selective breeding?