SL must be careful to protect ethics on the web

The simple fact is that allowing unrestricted access to communication channels occupied by adults and children alike will always allow adults to talk to children.

SL is actually far more censored and protected than most other avenues; it at least has a specific teen area, and a policy of removing teens from adult areas and vice versa, difficult though that may be. It is, I'm sorry, ridiculous to insist that SL is dangerous compared to MSN, Yahoo boards, bulletin boards in their thousands and so on. Have you looked at Myspace or Livejournal recently?

Censorware doesn't work; the only way of protecting kids is either to prevent them from accessing the net altogether and/or to teach them the skills to protect themselves, identify potentially dangerous situations and so on. They have to learn those at *some* point anyway.

The interactivity possible in SL is unparallelled - myspace and others are not even close to comparison who are you trying to kid? (no pun intended)

What, SL is more personally interactive than text and audio chat with webcams? (Because that is pretty standard these days.) I beg to differ.

If anything SL is a protective "barrier", as avatars need not have anything to do with RL details of their users.

I dont know how many little girls you've had webcam conversations with recently.. but my tally is none.

If an older person was 'caught' harassing a kid in SL they could easily claim they had no idea etc. etc.

If you do that over msn on a webcam.. your likely to go to jail for a while.

Can you please stop and actually think about what you are suggesting.

Webcams are a fixed medium that wont change much; you need someone's address first. You need them to accept.. you then need them to engage in a webcam conversation (or whatever). In second life you can impose yourself however and whenever you want from multiple accounts so 'ignoring' or 'muting' breaks down as an option.

Add to that the fact that interactivity in SL can and will grow as the technology develops and you have one giant recipe for disaster. Open your eyes.

Kids aren't interested (or at least the same volume of kids aren't interested) in myspace blogs etc. but they ARE interested in a 3D world where they can walk around and interact with others

61% of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on a site such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. Half have also posted pictures of themselves online.

* Older teens (16-17s) and girls especially use the Internet for social interaction, meeting friends, and networking.

I am appealing to people's common sense and morality to remove these issues of unrestricted access before the kids really cotton-on to SL and this all gets wildly out of hand.

Look, parents cannot constantly monitor their children's activities on the web. There has to be a limit to how long they can stand looking over their shoulders.

No, it is quite controllable...by the parent of the child. I get so tired of people who try to absolve themselves or other parents of their own resonsibility. 100% of the responsibility for the actions of your child belong to you as the parent and the child themselves. None of the responsibility belongs to a company like LL who has no access or control over your child's action. Only the parent has that control.

I am a parent. I have raised several children, and one of them is currently in teen SL. While she is a straight A student, a model and mature teen, and has never given me a moments trouble in her 13 years...I still do not allow her a computer in her own room (it's in the family room, right near my own) nor admin rights on that computer. Not because I don't trust her, but because I don't trust the people she might meet online. It's 100% my responsibility to educate her on how to handle herself both offline and online and how to manage everything from peer pressure to stalkers and harrassers. I can't do that if I don't know what she is doing, where and who she is doing it with and what she is experiencing.

It's my job as a parent to be involved in my child's life to the level that I know what she does online. Any parent that tries to place that responsibility on a company like LL has abdicated their parental role, IMHO.

The statement that the new system is not controllable is false. It's not controllabel by LL. It is 100% controllable by the person with true responsibility however...the account holder and parent of the account holder. Personal responsibility is dying a very sad death in western society and I must say I weep for that.

I think kids just need to be thought in school or by thier parents not to trust ANYONE online.. not to give personal info not even the state they live in.. peadophiles are smart as hell and can ask around questions to get the info they want. another point would be never to bitch about your parent to them either.. that gives them the old "well I dont have to listen to my parents you should run away with me" line.... VERY entising to the grounded 13/14 year old.

SL being open to them isnt going to change anything.. they are just as susceptible to it in IRC and yahoo/AIM as they are in SL. so its down to being WARNED and being SMART.. not being LOCKED OUT FOR THERE OWN GOOD.

well.. you obviously have deep seated issues that will not allow you to actually read what I'm saying.

So I won't bother anymore - however I will just point out that I never suggested SL should be censored. But most importantly the only 'nannying' that will happen in SL will occur by not forcing people to register their account against a credit card.

IF ACCOUNTS WERE REGISTERED AGAINST CREDIT CARDS NO ONE WOULD HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT KIDS AT ALL. THERE WOULD BE NO ISSUES WITH LOOKING OUT FOR/REPORTING KIDS, BANNING SOMEONE WOULD ACTUALLY HAVE A FUNCTIONAL PURPOSE, AND SL MIGHT ACTUALLY STAND THE TEST OF TIME INSTEAD OF JUST TURNING INTO A DISGUSTING PIT FULL OF .

sorry if that offended anyone I know it's over the top but i'm trying to make a point and i'm not being listened to.

There is no future in SL if you just let the wierd geeky people take it over - you have to make it appeal to the wider audience by losing the "fat geeky bloke rubbing himself" image.