Teen Grid no More?

I hang out with teens from time to time IRL - becuase my kids are 15 and 16 ..

When SL merges Ill get to do it with kids that arent mine whether I like it or not.

oh yay

Heh - swipe card...

Really, I usually keep pretty quiet on LL decisions, other than to derail a thread or two, but merging the teen grid with the main grid has got to be the worst idea I have ever heard. I mean New Coke bad. It creates a whole new world of liabilities for both LL and for users, it creates an atmosphere where adults are not as comfortable as they are now, it will result in an increase in griefing and complaints, and it segregates the population of SL.

In RL, I can be pretty sure who I'm talking to, and if I'm talking to a teen, I can behave appropriately, as can they. There is a context to my communication, just as I behave differently when I'm in a professional setting conducting a meeting as opposed to when I'm in a bar with my buddies watching a game on Sunday. Merging the grids destroys that context. Teens deserve a place where they can hang out with their peers, discuss their issues, enjoy themselves in their own way. There's an issue of maturity, as well as safety and legal liability issues.

I really don't want anyone to take this as me being negative towards teens. I'm not. I just think that we need to make sure they have a safe place where they can interact, away from some of the content and pressures of the main grid, and I don't want to be constantly worrying about who I'm talking to.

Try spending 5 days a week with 20 of them at a time. I'll pass thank you.

And with my conspiracy theory hat on it will make more adults want to verify and restrict their parcels to stop the griefing teenagers from annoying them

I would think that being a teen and having a grid all to my age group would be pretty cool. Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I seem to remember, as a teenager, thinking that 99% of all adults were either wrong or stupid. I would have liked a place to go without them and their lame rules and hangups.

Now that I'm an adult, I'd rather not have the teens see me with my lame rules and weird hangups...nor do I want to, like Qie and Trout have said, worry about watching my language/attitude because of an age difference. The thing of it is, in RL, you can instantly tell when someone is a teenager. They LOOK younger. Their bodies are shaped differently. In SL, anyone can be a buxom supermodel or pinhead uber-jock; how to tell (beyond reading every single profile of every single person I talk to) who is a teen and who isn't?

Nah, I think this merging thing is a very bad idea.

Can we call it the work of the Devil? Can we? Huh? Please?

I think I have a solution. Just like some bars do, when the Teens move to the main grid, give them giant green bracelets they can't remove.

Heh, but seriously, yes I would prefer some easy way of being able to tell if the person I'm talking to is underage RL. In fact, I'd want something like what the teen grid has now where the whole grid gets a message when a teen has entered the grid.
-Stimps

At the very least Dan Linden...

I read that book.."The Devil and Daniel Linden:.

Exactly. It's not even a sex thing. As much as I joke around here, I really don't spend my SL time running around trying to sex up random people. It's an attitude difference, and it really affects my comfort level. I don't understand why a teenager would want to hang around with me anyway. We would have nothing in common at all. I don't want to feel like I would have to change the way I interact with people socially because one of the main draws of SL to me is the social freedom. Merging the grids hampers that freedom considerably, as does this age verification/restricted content nonsense. The rules were, if not clear, at least sort of easy to stay within before. No funny business in PG, anything goes in mature, within what is reasonable given the company and the build. Now, it's age verified, restricted content, maybe mature but not adult, teens not ok, but probably here anyway, cussing prohibited, etc... I don't know what to do or avoid or when the rules go into effect.

I'm not a "sky is falling" guy. I'm just me, and this makes SL very uncomfortable and weird for me. Not weird in a good way, either.

The practical impact for me will just be that I will pull back a little from people I don't already know. I know that none of my friends currently are underage, whether they verify or not. What it will change, however, is my willingness to be as open to others that I come across in the grid, for liability reasons.

Stimpy has a good idea. Let's say for argument's sake that the merge WILL happen. I won't be happy about it, but whatever.

I would, however, feel much more comfortable if all teens had a glowing green dot over their heads, like people who have voice enabled have white dots. I'd know instantaneously that the avi was a teen. Chances are, I wouldn't even bother greeting him/her. If I went into a club and saw lots of green dots, I'd just leave.

Curious...

Several comments in posts to this thread refer to a merging of the Teen and Main grids...

Will one (or more) of you post a URL to a page (blog, press release, wiki, whatever...) where LL has announced that this is in the plans?

Or, is this all just random speculation?

Thanks

There are a few imature adults running around SL doing stupid things and acting like youngins so I cannot imagine having to deal with real children running around on the grid acting stupid also, I am not a kid person so even with them being on SL I would be forced to take advil everyday just for that kid relief headache.

I'd say educated speculation. There has been no formal announcement, but with the age verification and land flagging issues, plus rumors of the teen grid being a drain on LL resources and LL not thinking it's worth keeping, it makes sense that LL would consider a merger without really thinking through the decision and how it would impact current users of the main grid.

It is on the eventual horizon but way beyond farther out there than blog posts.

Daniel Linden said very confidently it would happen.

Think logically - Linden Labs sees Second Life as the Start of the 3D metaverse internet.

The 3D internet wont have any Age restrictions the 2D internet doesnt.

Therefore the requirements to visit the 3D web as far as who can access it will be the same as the 2D web ... So basically Anyone who can get to a computer.

Merging the grids is a step along that journey.

So no .. its not specualtion. The Speculation is only in the "How far away it is"


The only thing that would prevent it as long as SL is still running would be them to totally change course away from the 3D web stuff and go back to being "Just" a Virtual World.

I think they have considered the impact. Corporate leeches would love to have the teens here. Not only can they target little Johnny, but perhaps his parents as well, by encouraging them to sign up and be targets, I mean customers too.

As to most adults the idea of merging the Teen Grid with the Main Grid gives me a very bad feeling.

Although I have played browsergames together with teens and had fun doing so I akways knew that they were teens and in those games there wasn't a hint of sexual content which defused the situation as well.

In the comments to the blog about AV (http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/09/18/identity-verification-and-flagging-parcels-for-restricted-content/#comment-479764) there was an interesting one from a teen with an idea that would be a pretty good solution in my opinion if it is technically doable:

Mephisto - I've played games with teens as well. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea, get voice and go play Counterstrikeource for a while (not the old-school CS - play Source). It's a great multiplayer FPS, but listen to the chat. Still want to merge the teen grid with the adult grid? I didn't think so.

A teen CONTINENT might be okay. Just don't let them TP off of it.

As statet in my previous post:



No! (And with No I mean HELL NO!)

Sorry Mephisto - I was relating to you mentioning that you had played games where teens were allowed. I didn't mean to imply that you thought merging the grids was a good idea. You and I are on the same page on this one.

OMG Tell me that's not true!!! You have to hear what my friend's 7-year-old DOES on the teen grid. Awful awful awful!!! NO! PLEEEEEASE!

Your not even supposed to be onto he Teen Grid until you're 13, so she could get kicked off forever.

OK..... we're waiting... spill....