Age Verification (Poll)

Hmmmm. I think they probably can distinguish. Certainly some merchants will accept debit but not credit. Which implies they can distinguish. We need to know more to really make confident statements on how close an actual credit card can come to being a reassurance, if not a proof, of not being a minor.
Certainly almost all the pornsites on the web are willing to take the legal risk of relying on credit card plus "I am over 18" button-click.

For SL it seems, it is no longer enough. Getting too big, maybe ? Head too high above the parapet ?

I won't be paying for Age Registration. If not gaining access to areas containing particular content diminishes my enjoyment of Second Life, then I'll just stop.
You're not holding me accountable for under age access.
Are we going to have similar scenes in the teen version of Second Life? Will users have to prove they're UNDER 18 at further financial cost?

That's a good question. Is there such an effort going on to keep Adults off the Tenn Grid?

You have to verify as a teen to go on the teen grid I guess. I dont know the method, but that was always a requirement.

Kids are automatically shipped to the Main grid on their 18th birthday

Hopefully they remembered to say bye to their frinds - who that cant IM any more.

Yep it's all about the big cash cow they created and how they can milk it, after all they don't have that flawed ratings system anymore so why not ride the back of a paedophile scandal and take everyones hard earned $L while they're at it.

We don't have to take this from LL They need us the (paying customer) more then we need them (Linden lab).

With out us (the paying customers) LL would be none existent

LL can't survive with out us. Remember this for it is true fact.

Nathan Ferguson has a good point -

It must be rather difficult for someone to prove they're under 18, especially without the cheerful cooperation of fairly large education bureaucracies. And logically wouldn't the under-18 grid be a more likely target for paedophiles seeking 13 year old schoolgirls etc? The whole thing is starting to look like a bizarre fiasco; the people who are most likely to match the ones that German tabloid TV program "exposed" - two adults indulging in "age play" - are precisely the group an "age verification" scheme would merrily wave through: two adults. The near-legendary difficult problems of how to certainly prevent children accessing online pornography demonstrate that it simply can't be relied on to work.

It makes a great deal more sense to enlist parents in the exercise. As a child has to circumvent parental control by using the parent's credit card, charge a small nominal sum to the card when a resident first registers. Say, $1, and that it is listed as "SecondLife" on card statements. This tactic is of negligible cost and alerts parents to potential trouble among their pride and joy. Put the onus of supervision back where it belongs, on parents. There are other advantages to such localised control - it's local, reflecting whatever community standards exist at the client end rather than the server's hypothetical liabilities in possibly very different jurisdictions. Coupled with a clear (not clear-ish) TOS, an "I certify and blah blah blah" button, and the usual rigmarole of a credit card, Linden will have done all they could reasonably be expected to do to preserve a place of adult free expression while giving a heads-up to credit card (and children) owners.

We are never going to be able to be certain of the age of someone who is using a computer, until such time as the machine can reach over and do rather personal things to the user. You sure you want to go there?

When powerless to solve the real issues, scream to the heavens in your loudest voice, until you cannot scream anymore, about anything else that you KNOW will engender support through popular participation!

If you cannot fix the product, and people are complaining loudly enough to be heard by potential customers, then scream about something else!

Corporate Strategy 101: Keep a push-button issue in your pocket, for which you already have a formulated response package, that will distract the shareholders from current controversial problems, and only pull it out when the going gets really really rough.

Paypal uses a similar method. When you have your account verified 2 small deposits are made to your bank account which you must acknowledge. Maybe not feasable here, but something better than the offered scheme has to be out there.