The other side of removing age verification

This is taken from the comments on Philip's "3rd anniversary of SL" blog entry.

hooray for pedophiles!

Thank you for posting that, Ricky. I figured that would happen - it was already way too easy for adults to easily get into the teen grid before the change - now it is a fucking free for all. Remember, it's all about the numbers.

Well, it's only anecdotal evidence, but it's terribly disturbing and I felt it should be brought to the attention of the General forums.

Thanks for the info Ricky, LL can't tolerate this behavior of adults invading the teen grid and something needs to be done to curb this now.

I think if concerned adults keep raising these issues maybe LL will finally get the message.

I was not aware that the same non-age verification requirement applied to the teen grid.

Seriously, how can they tolerate this? Wow, if I were a parent, it would be SL shutdown time for my kid simply knowing that LL was not doing some type of validation of ages of people signing up for the teen grid and at least had a record of names of people so that if a predator struck it could be traced. Just wow.

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Just one of the many reasons we feel its a bad idea.... more and more people are realising it but so far the Lindens remain unconvinced for some reason.

Lewis

I really think LL's management of age verification and the Teen Grid is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

*snort* It was bound to happen. It's almost safer for a parent who is in SL to have their teens on the main grid than to have them on the teen grid, from the looks of it.

And yes, it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. They took away the very thing that might have protected their butts by removing the verfication. Now, it's no longer a question of 'if', it's 'when' will the wake up alarm hits them in the pocket books. Ah, well, they know what's best for the company, don't they?

That is just scary really.

We said it would happen.

*shakes head*

As a parent thats exactly what it was for me, shutdown time. The account my daughter so badly wanted to play..cancelled. Hell no, not if SL can't even TRACK the bastards.

A smart pedophile will work both grids. And now, that's easier than ever.

None of the anti-griefing measures Robin mentioned will do anything to deter a pedophile on the main grid (to say nothing of the teen grid). If anything, it will all just make it easier for the pedophile to adopt a friendly and care-taking demeanor, in a world that has become more combative, with more counter-combat measures, and with less trust than ever before.

The griefing, the distrust - all of that will make it even easier for the pedophile able to practice his "safe harbour" performance.

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As an aside, it disturbs me about the lawsuit waiting to happen, yes. And it disturbs me that the argument, "SL is the Internet and the residents are the web sites on it, so it's up to them to keep minors out," may be the defense LL plans to rely on.

What disturbs me most, though, is all this talk I've read on the forums about how it's the parents' fault, or if a kid breaks the law and comes on the adult grid, too bad, they shouldn't have broken the rule, etc.

What we are talking about is real harm that is more likely to come to a real young person as a result of the new open registration system.

It is true, nothing is foolproof, and things do happen. But to make it so much easier amounts to negligance, I believe.

People may wish to rationalize any danger away, by saying that it was always this dangerous, and that since sign-up procedures weren't perfect, they were useless. That just simply isn't true.

People may wish to say, well, if something goes wrong, it's the fault of bad parenting, or the child's fault anyway - and not LL's fault, or ours, for supporting them when they have not taken (in my opinion) sufficient and reasonable safeguards.

But if and when we get a victim - an unnecessary victim - then how are we going to feel?

coco

It has never been possible to verify that somebody is actually underage. Considerably harder than verifying that they are overage.

That is true, but when an adult was caught on the teen grid they would have had a) information that identified them and b) a way to keep them from creating an alt and coming right back.

At this point, I don't see the reason for even having the teen grid, and I predict it will be gone, eventually.

However, before they threw away the verification checks, if they caught someone lying about their age or griefing, they could ban the card they used to verify with. That might actually have kept them from returning. At the very least, it would slow them down.

Now? Were an 'adult environment' with absolutely no walls or doors. Just a polite little sign at the entrance, saying "no minors", and turning away the good kids that are honest about their age.

LL implies that they are tracking IP info. And what IP would that be? The one for the computer at the public library, or their school, or their workplace, where the account was created? The last one they logged in from? Oh, was that the neighbor's system? Piff. Reset the cable modem and you have a new IP number, with most ISP's.

IP banning is a lot less effective than banning the credit card they signed up with.

Also - correct me if I'm wrong about this - but having to register a credit card presumably does provide identifying information in the event that law enforcement needs to find a law-breaker. If say, a young person had been killed as a result of a contact with someone they met on LL, wouldn't law enforcement be able to subpoena the records and use any such information to find the perpetrator?

coco

I just pray that the press does not get a hold of this. The last thing we need is to get Second Life known as "The Place for Pedo's".

*double sigh*

If Linden Labs is unwilling to put any sort of age checks in place, I think it's time to kill the Teen Grid before it takes us all down.

Fucking amazing. No, no one expected *this* to happen..

I mean seriously. Is anyone at Linden Lab a fucking cynic, or what? "People are made of rainbows and happiness, they would NEVER lie about their age! ^____^"

Pff.

Are we sure this posting is serious? He talks about freebies from the main grid. You cannot take anything from the main grid with you! I think this OP is just having us all on.

My grandkids spend a lot of time on the TG but most ppl they meet seem to be preteens.

I believe this is correct: the origin of the freebies is on the MG. In other words, someone made a nice ObjectA and donated it to the TG. Blue took it to the TG and distrubited it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Weren't there also posts about things stolen from the main grid and brought over to TG? Also that kids that were caught on the main and sent to the TG took their inventory (and main grid stuff) with them. *doh*

I'm sure people have also dontated freebies to the TG, as well.

People have reported objects being somehow ported over to the teen grid. Siggy can tell you all about it, for instance.

But who cares, it's the same grid anyways. Hi hello, you are currently spanking a 13 year old with a leather bullwhip in your BDSM club. Oopsie daisy!

the Lindens said that this would open up the international market and expose more peeps to Sl..welllllllllll. lmao!. i f i was one of thoses peeps, and i mean real people that are interested , not these fool griefers etc , i sure wouldnt be signing up. knowing even just a bit of whats goin on,if anything i would tend to think less and less would be signing up. who wants to be griefed and be exposed to diddlers etc.

This is a sad state of affairs. And the Teen Grid Lindens keep telling us how good the Teens are in policing themselfes, and reporting adults.
Ick.