No kids in the real SL, EVER!

I'm pretty disapointed to find that someone has already done this... I had a grand plan too.

Oh well, theres always new people that have never been abducted

When you're a part of a system that is not run by you, no matter how many nos you cry out, the system will still make its own choice.

Troy

No Kids anywhere. This is my escape from reality I will not be altering my escape from reality for no one. I spend considerable amount of money about 90 a month to have this little haven for escape. I say we protest this in game tonight I will be makeing a free sign with notecard delivery and spreading it around. There should be no kids in second life furthermore I will not only end my account if kids officially be let into second life. If you want kids in a game like this fine. Make a seperate game with no chat or anything connected to it. I dont want any brats iming me talking to me in my land or worrying if the girl I am doing up the wazoo in a bdsm parlor is 13 years old on the other end of internetland. That scares the liveing daylights outta me.

Lol you said wazoo.

I would Second that about no kids.

I played another online game for a number of years. When the rating was changed from "mature" to "teen", things started going downhill fast. There are enough games out there for children/teens.

As a qualified and police checked teacher who works in 1:1 I would be willing, if they were largely segregated from the bulk of the SL system to run small sessions. I would charge my current rate of RL pay for the privelege - at £18/h, or US$31 or L$6500 AN HOUR, one to one.

But by and large, kids let loose, NO THANK YOU. This is amongst other things a refuge for me from work and RL. Teens and kiddies do appear, but on their own head be it if they hear me talking about sex, drugs whatever, they are not supposed to be there so I feel no special need to be protective of them if they stumble on/invade it.

If I knew they were there, lots of discussion and activities might just stop.

ah, come on. who are we kidding here? you've seen the forums. the average SLer appears to be a 9 years old male geek with a bad attitude, a thesaurus and an agenda.

Since there is some renewed interest, how about a fresh idea?

What about this idea:

- Seperate grid / sims that are classroom accessable.
- A teacher would login with a special teacher account
- only the registered class members could log on and gain access to the sim
- students could only access the sim while the teachher is active
- 2 minute linkdead tolerance on the teacher
- The teacher account could require an extra level of verification.

I dunno, I'm kinda torn...

Now I don't want kids here at all... I'm a Mentor, Instructor, and currently a Live Helper... you can bet I wouldn't want to do any of these if the world fills up with kids. I know you get some, but for now they have to make some attempt to appear to be mature adults and that means behaving themselves in class. You think they'd bother with this if the 18+ limit was gone? I won't be an unpaid childminder for anyone... L$1,000,000 an hour maybe, and that's low.

On the other hand, I've seen a couple of players very upset when they've been discovered to be under age and are no longer welcome. And I'm talking 16-17 year olds here, and to me, in the UK they aren't minors, so I can sympathise... but where do you draw the line? As someone said previously, in parts of Europe, the AoC is 14 years, and I know that in some parts of the world it's as low as 12 years...

I don't have children myself, but I've looked after them for my family... 12 year olds are NOT ready for SL by any means, and in my opinion, neither are 14 or 15 year olds. By 16 they can be ready I guess... but it depends a lot on how they're brought up and how they've been educated... We however, aren't in a position to make a judgement call on that, so a fixed limit is needed. Set it too low, and somewhere in the world, someone will scream "paedophile"... set it too high, and someone has to wait another year...

So, like it or not... 18+ is a good place to put the bar. Yes, some sneak under, but as has been said, they're in breach of the TOS doing so, and lose their rights to moan if they see or hear something they shouldn't.

As for the PG vs M sim debate, I think that's insane... the rules for M sims are what are considered PG over here, and the PG rules are well... Disney! If nothing else, this needs it's own discussion, completely seperate... I dread to think what a G sim would be like...

I agree, NO kids.

Kids' brains lack the social maturity to behave in a world like SL. They'll come in, get some cheap guns, and run from property to property kicking in people's stuff, shooting people who are trying to build, setting off loud noises where quiet is appreciated... They will behave just like immature kids, because they are...

I think they should stick to something less intelligent and more suited to them.

Siobahn made the point some kids are mature and maybe should be let in. Well I propose the following:

* NO kids

If you are mature enough to behave like an adult, it's likely nobody will notice you're 16 or 17. But if you act immature and we find you're underage, you'll be banned cause the 'party line' is

* NO kids

So we say no kids. Now let's see if you're mature enough to fit into an adult society.

I didn't say they should be let in... just that I can sympathise with *some* of them when they get found out... I do support the * NO KIDS * line.

Oh and mine does? pfft. What kind of an argum....

uh....

*backs out of thread*

I'm not sure I get you there Kris

You said you're backing out of the thread... Does that mean you said the wrong thing?

I stand by my point that kids are too immature for SL, but I remember you vaguely from around SL and you seem a fair enough person

Don't worry, if I was the bouncer on the door of SL I'd let you in, I have no problems with you (Or most other people in SL, SL is good as it is now )

I propose we not only keep kids out but keep bigots, idiots and immature people out too. Let's impose an intelligence and maturity test before joining and only allow them into the game if they score high enough. Better yet, let's flag them so we can see them coming from far away or restrict them into certain sims so they hear us smart people talking about them but they themselves can never go to.

Ummmmm NO.

I like being immature when I am not talking to teachers and business people about educational crap.

What about if we set the bar right above your intelligence?

hm.. that might explain why I can't log in these days...

but all joking aside, i was merely trying to point out how humiliating for kids to be limited in a way some people were suggesting.

if lindens want to make money off younger kids then give them a new game. don't let them play with the adults... most of them will end up needing therapy or something.

What if kids were allowed in, but their avatars were directly forbidden (prevented by programming) to enter Mature areas? I've never seen anything in an Immature area that would cause a kid's head to explode.

Mind you, I've been here a scant few months.

IQ based login, great idea... bye...
Seriously, my concerns on this issue are valid, parents are not responsible, heck, kids get on SL through their parents already, but if we make it open, a second grid might be better, with the policing that Linden Labs hardly has the current staff to achieve.

I'm sorry..... what game have you been playing these scant few months, I've seen prims shaped as mature ASCII art in Ahern, people running around in the nude in PG areas, and some mature pictures in a store on the far north of Lusk, plus mature areas are currently still visible... colo's an example of a multi-grid stratedgy, the preview grid's currently active, yet the main one is fine too, playground.secondlife.com?

I have nothing against minors.

But SL is obviously a +18 game , contains A LOT of nudity and some violence.

You can put all the flagging on the game that you want, minors will always manage to get in SL and sign their account up as an adult 'flagged' accounts.

And sadly there is no way of checking if the person behind the keyboard is a minor or not.
(since the minor has most likely used his mommy or daddy's visa)


I'm not pro-minors in SL either.
The game can effect the minors too much.
Besides that , some minors just are little brats.
LOL


So all the parents out there , keep your children (under 1 away from SL.
Because SL is as nasty as online gaming can get.

PG zones won't protect the minors forever from seeing nudity and other nasty stuff.

I don't think a lot of what we do is particularly sexual or anything most of the time, but hey if we want to come on after a bad day, kick back and say "Fuck I've had a bad day.." well that's cool. That's just us being us. It's not suitable for kids, but it's us being us.

Part of the appeal of second life is it's chilled, and rules stop you from being chilled. Introducing children means the inevitable introduction of rules and morals... No swearing, no 'sexy' clothing, no gambling, or at least regulated gambling, no endorsing the taking of illegal drugs, no endorsing the taking of alcohol... It's just not fun anymore.

I know children need protecting, and it's our duty as adults to be responsible as a society for protecting them, but can we protect them some place else than our beloved social club and private world, second life?

Mephistophelina - Every single one of your points were right on the mark! The bottom line is that it's obvious allowing minors into SL in any form will alienate a huge portion of the current user base.

The million dollar question is - do they care? Or is there marketing research that shows better financial potential for a broader user base inclusive of minors as opposed to the existing focused adult user base?

It will come down to the numbers, it always does.

Personally, if they are mature enough to handle what is here, hell, I'm all for it. I think that we shouldn't let the kids who say the word "poop" or something like it a lot. Or, make fart sounds, and burp. Those minors shouldn't be around. But, then again, every now and then, you come across a minor, who, is smart, mature, and is NOT going to ruin the day for you. Those are the kind, who, are GOING to actaully make something cool, learn how to build, and make friends online, and nobody be the wiser. You people out there, who have about 30 people on your calling card list, think each person out, and i'm sure most of you will come to find, that this person IS a minor. Will you care? Hell no.

My point is the following:

Don't exclude those worthy.