No kids in the real SL, EVER!

Near the end of the town hall Philip mentioned that LL is looking seriously at ways to include those under 18 in Second Life. After he said it nearly everyone at my repeater location yelled "NO!" and worse.
If LL wants to use the technology to support a seperate client of some kind, maybe with a different name entirely that those under 18 could use, that's fine. But, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not allow minors in the real SL world.

Oh. My. God.

I so agree with what Tina said.

I totally agree... I think the current problems with the sporadic immaturity is bad enough... I just don't think this is in any way a place for kids. :-/

Well, it's sorta inevitable. SL will go worldwide, replace the WWW. Kids will get on. Kids are already getting on.

What I think is a good idea is adding a completely seperate area that is kid-friendly, restrict kids to there, and have agressive monitoring for child predators in this area. This could even, as suggested, be a totally different client though as SL grows it's going to be hard for kids not to know about the adult SL as well.

I would also like to see land zoning - we could make areas dedicated to schools, non-profit orgs, etc, and have seperate rules for different areas. Such rules could be hard coded in different firmware for sim servers.
Rules could include:
- auto-swear filtering (BLEEP or ****).
- MUCH better searching algorithms (say I want to search a science area for research, and I could restrict my search to that area)
- push restrictions
- script restrictions
- etc

I think this is a great opportunity to help guide the Metaverse into an organized product while it's still flexible and young.

Oh my god.. what in the heck are they THINKING?! You can't possibly imagine, There is bad enough. Seriously. I agree to some extent that it could help LL turn a profit, but can you seriously have a genuine, logical and intelligent conversation with a kid? I don't think so. Now this means, if I want to have Mature content.. *IF* they decided this, I would have to post everything saying that if you don't respond with your Age/DOB etc, you wouldn't be allowed to view my content. I shouldn't have to do that, but I certainly hope I won't have to. For those who are in PG land, or (shudder) eventually G land, I will just simply avoid it all together.

i agee with LL. let the minors in. but flag them.

All minor's names show up in a different colour.
Create a new sim category - General. Minors can only travel in G sims.
Minors probably shouldn't be entering the land auctions. It sees enough abuse from some adults - collusion, defaulting

G land will become the most valuable. That will be a strange irony

How about a whole kid-only grid, that keeps 'em away from the rest of the adult world...unless they are saying we should just integrate...could be messy.

NOoOOOOOOOoooooooo!

NO MINORS! I vehemently object to the mere thought of playing with them on a regular basis. Why can't the Lindens just be satisfied with the lot of us who ACT young?

I go to the EA forums occasionally and what I see there just makes my head explode. Granted some of them are actually as smart as they like to think they are. But I STILL don't care for their company. Come here when they're 18. Let them fucking wait.

I'd enumerate all the ways opening the SL gates to 8-14 years old would screw this place up, but I'm too pissed to be polite or articulate.

So, Phillip! PLEASE GOD NO. Honestly, man, do you wanna see me cry? We need minors in SL like we need a cactus up our ass.

DON'T SELL OUT!

No no no no no no no.. integrating.. we would return to the TSO state of things... (shudder).

Gah, please LL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Make it a seperate grid or else we'll be seeing penis launchers and all other sexually oriented oddities. Or whatever they do these days, :-/

I can see it now:
"Club Dwell Casino Jr."
"Poser Balls for Kids"
Land barrony becoming a family affair.
"Family Jessie"

For more elucidation as to why this is a bad idea, please see Penny-Arcade's "Greater Internet Fuckwad" theory which can be applied to all internet gaming.

http://penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-03-19

Multiply it by a thousand for kids.

I am totally against this idea! Keep the kids out.

Redirect them to Toontown!

I agree. No Kids!

As a mother of two, one being a teenager, there is no place for them here. This is an adult world..not Disney

Jauani, great idea with the flagging.

Essentially, making a kids-only area seperate from our sims would be keeping the kids out of SL, AND providing for kid content.

Everybody wins.

Kids in SL will mean.....

Conservative right wing whackos (if you take offense to this, Im sorry you think of yourself as a whacko) crusading against SL we ALL know what goes on in here, and we ALL know it's harmless expressive outlet... and im not just talking the sex industry with strip clubs and what-not... We have guns, we have adult humor, we have artistic expression, and yes we have animations that are MORE than dubious...

a minor only needs to tell mommy and daddy, and mommy and daddy only need to tell Attorney General Ashcroft, and then Mister Ashcroft can put Linden Labs outta biz...

Integrating minors is a TERRIBLE idea for.....

EVERYONE

So unless SL wants to be another greek statue covered up in a museum because it has exposed genetalia then yeah....
Bring the kids in... we'll show em a good time. =\

it would get them into SL, but there would be a portion of SL they could not access because they are flagged as minors by the system.

adults would be on good behaviour when entering G sims, and I can assure you that we all will. Why? because despite being immature, minors will make some of the craziest stuff. they will have the patience and aptitude to master prims scripts and textures in degrees most adults do not have time or stamina to.

Considering what I see on an average day at Ahern, and what I know about other venues where minors are allowed, mature is in certain areas... er...yeah... the majority of the immature types would be either A. Minors who have little direction, B. what those minors grew up into... right now, B's able to be kept in check, do you want to be raising hundreds of kids? Because that's basically what we'd be doing.

That seems naive at best. People already go to PG sims and do things that get them in trouble, human nature won't change. Also, since Adult players can go back and forth I'm sure they will be able to IM back and forth. Putting some kind of tag on certain people to say "Hi, I'm a kid" is like an invitation to the very worst kinds of IM abusers.
This just seems like a total ugly mess for everyone involved from LL having to police it and respond to critics as noted in a post above, to children being exploited, to current residents who just want a community of responsible peers. I don't see any system where the two worlds could live together on the same grid.

The day Children are let into the grid we inhabit now is the day i cancel my account....period. If wanted to play with kids I would have looked at TSO, I didn't ever even try it. Played Unreal Tournament online for 4 years and dealt with enough little brats to satisfy me for life. Part of why i even signed on for hte trial was it was 18 + and i on't enjoy interacting with minors on the internet.As a father of an eight year old i also do NOT want my child exposed to this environment until they are mature enoguh to fully understand the imiplications of their actions and what to watch out for when whacko predators are lurking out there trying to corrupt them.

Good grief i hope this isn't coming down the line. I really like my SL.

First, I'm against minors in SL. Period. Please see: There, TSO, etc.

But, if it does happen, they should be on a separate grid completely. PG sims should not all of a sudden allow minors. Gah!

We need to keep this thread ALIVE. It is time to effect change! We need keep it at the top until the Lindens acknowledge our collective voice.

Let them know how passionately we as a majority feel about children in Second Life.

I have two children whom I love dearly and have nothing against children or teenagers. However in respect to SL I have to say that like Jay I would leave. Having even more little fucktards running around is a truly horrific thought. Damn.

Physical age is one of the things in this world that we can quantify as human beings when it comes to ourselves... ha ha ha... of course, that really doesn't make sense, when you consider that there are "adults" who act "childish" and "bratty". Although I like to think of "childish" as a positive adjective sometimes, as in "someone who still has their curiosity and imagination intact before the weary jadedness of the world wore it down like grass clippings in an ocean".

I know that beyond anything practical, there are legal complications and potential lawsuits to be tossed around.

In the end, as with many things, even amongst those of 18+ years, it comes down to the individual for me.

I know a lot of people who do not have children of their own in SL and a lot of people who do not have kids WILL NOT edit their behavior when around them...

this is not because they are monsters, but because they are simply unaware....

Then you have the pedophiles WHO DO edit their behavior around children... Having a G sim or minors area is just opening up "hunting grounds"

I dont want to have to get "Ferran" on their ass because they have been pulling some illicit stuff on a friend's kids...

let me just re-iterate, this is a BAD idea...

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO minor integration in the current grid... PERIOD!