Teen SL - a legal catch-22

I'm trying to sign my son up for a free account. He's fourteen years old, and has been wanting to join for a couple of weeks.

I tried to register him, but ran into a legal dillemma with this:

You are signing up for Teen Second Life.



It won't let him register without a credit card. But it's ILLEGAL for a 14-year-old to have a credit card. That means, I have to use my own. But, it's ILLEGAL for a 40-year-old housewife to sign up as a teenager.

Help???

My husband and I both currently have free accounts, and I intend to subscribe when I've learned a bit more. In the meantime, if DS needs money to spend, I assume I can just pay him from my account? So why does he need a credit card (which he can't have) to sign up?

Whenever I try to complete his registration, it comes back with an error that he needs to confirm his age.... Obviously he cannot confirm he is a minor (you can't prove a negative), and my card # would only confirm him as an ADULT.

How do I resolve this? I've tried calling the 800# twice, but after being on hold for what feels like hours I get told no one is available and sent to voice mail....

Can't you just create your son's account with his information, but then just use a card with your billing information on it?

I'm failing to see a legal issue there. It'd be the same as you signing up but using a credit card with your husband's name on it.

would a paypal account work?

The issue is that it is not his information. Credit cards aren't transferable, and a 14-year-old can't have one at all. Nor a PayPal account. The issue isn't the card number; it's the age-confirmation request. He cannot confirm he is a minor, and neither can I. A credit card only confirms an adult, because a minor cannot have one.

Porn sites require a credit card to enter even if the number won't be charged, because simply having the number at all proves adulthood.

Dragon lady..you register him using the correct information, but the credit card information is yours. It's if they incur any bills, it will be billed to your credit card. I monitor my daughter's account regularly and have called LL to answer a question one time about her account. I've allowed her to own a small parcel, so her tier is charged to me.

It's worked out for my daughter since teen grid opened.

mil

Actually, there's no age limit on cards. You can pick him up a prepaid card from most major card outlets.

There most definetly are age limits on cards. That was established by the Supreme Court in regards to internet porn.

But...I did go ahead, and registered him. I gave them his information regarding age and such, then my PayPal account number. I got a message saying I would receive an email, but I haven't. The page says:



Why does it expire today? And I can't log him in -I've tried repeatedly.


I don't know whether the glitch is with the game, with the information I submitted, or if I have to download a different version, or what???

Well, after multiple log-in attempts, I finally started over, and set him up a second account. It still won't work. I haven't gotten an email -only the one from PayPal, and the page I was finally redirected to still says it expires today.

We now have four accounts set up -mine, my husbands, and two for DS. My husband and I have no trouble, but DS can't get in at all.

What in the world is going on? Why can't I get him logged in? He wants to be part of this so badly, and I'm getting really frustrated that he can't participate.

just plug in your credit card info for him and you will be billed accordingly this happens often I remember one parent accidentally put their kid on the adult grid and had to find a way to get him moved.

The credit card is yours with your name and just put his real life info in for the rest it will work fine you should be able to enter the card info in to one of the two accounts no problem for him and it will be good to go if not there is some kind of data issue and possibly you have to contact billing and make a bug report

It doesn't work. I did put in my PayPal information -both times. But I still haven't received the email, and multiple attempts to log him in have failed.

There.com is calling.

Your problem could be that you are trying to log into the Teen grid via the adult SL version. I don't know for a fact if this is true, but there may be a different version to log into the Teen grid. You should go to the Teen SL download page and see if you need to download a different version.

I was able to use PayPal at 1st, but it suddenly stopped working a few weeks ago despite talking w/ both LL's & PP's tech support folks, so I eventually gave up and used my card#. Maybe try just using a regular card#?

Nope, same version.

Sounds like an urban myth.

See, for example, this BankRate.com article dated January 9, 2007.

I believe that minors can't be held liable for loans, and hence can't get a traditional card on their own. But they can get one if it's secured (so that the money is already set aside for the credit card company), or if there is an adult co-signer, who can be held liable. It's also perfectly legal, and very common, for teens to be made authorized users of their parents' credit cards. The issue is simply whether or not the credit card company has someone from whom they can collect the debt, and has nothing to do with internet porn.

There may well have been a case where a court decided whether or not credit card information is enough of a defense for a porn vendor to prove they didn't knowlingly sell to a minor. But that's a different situation, and wouldn't affect the legality of minors having credit cards.

I don't really want to sign up a 3rd account for him to try a credit card. Since I can't log him in anywhere, I can't delete or modify either of the accounts.

Can't someone from LL help? I've tried to call them, but I just get put on hold -with a dozen recorded messages playing in my ear- for a long time, then get switched to voice mail. I haven't left any messages, because I can't stand talking to recordings.

Surely posting on the forums should lead to some answers???

Whoa.. you can't even log him into the SL website? Sorry, dunno what to tell you (FWIW, I was on hold w/ 'em for a good 30-40 min before I got ahold of anyone)

No; I can't do anything with either account. Apparently they're both there and active, at least according to the confirmation pages we got. But I can't log him in at all.

I set him up a free account at third.com, and I guess if we can't resolve this we'll just plan on subscribing him there -if he wants to stay with it at all.

I have exact same problem. I signed up my daughter and son (13 & 14 y/o) to teenSL but have been unable to actually log them in. I've set up a couple of accounts for both but the download and log-in screen are the same as for 'adult' SL. They are really bendin my ear and it's a damn nuisance as I am addicted to SL and they're impingin on my SL-time lol.
How do u download the teen-SL software? Someone must know, i presume there are folks runnin around teen-SL and its not just a vast barren landscape?

Well im pretty sure that the clients needed would have to be different as the server protocol for the two grids is obviously going to be different (same reason we need upgrades to the client when protocol changes are made).... But checking through this isnt the case....... There are things to remember here.... Make sure to signup your child using his information on the signup page..... Billing needs to be your information.... Paypal may not work properly as its directly linked to you and way to easy for people to get onto the teen grid using such details.....

I'd call up Linden Labs and find out what is going on as to why your son cannot log in. This escapes me as to why he cannot short of something going wrong or your paypal account not actually being verified (note it needs to be linked to a bank account to be verified).......

Oddly enough the client for both grids is the same. What is different is where they connect. That info is based on account. Sometimes when a single household has both teen and adult accounts, a check it put in there to verify that there really are teens in the house that will be using it. Have you e-mailed [email]support@secondlife.com[/email] with your questions? They would be much more help. You can also try [email]blue@lindenlab.com[/email], he is the teen manager.

The same happened to me, I signed my 14 year old son up to play the game TWICE!! after confirming my details through paypal then on returning to secondlife the page did not load, so I hit refresh and got the message that he would receive and e-mail and it gave him the usual log in details. But guess what IT DOESN'T WORK!! We never got the e-mail and I have tried several logins, tried different downloads its the same software that I use for the adult grid, and I have e-mailed LL several times to explain the situation and they just dont understand what the problem is!

I am getting very frustrated with the teen account!!

Hi,
we have the same problem here.

We like to use paypal, have registered a free basic account in mature grid and when registering our girl's account with HER information and MY paypal information the account "expires" on the same day it is created.

Could the problem be that there may be only one SL account per paypal account?

I have the same problem with my daughters account. I did contact support, but all I got was a lot of links to read up on, but nothing works.

I can't get her logged in Teens or the site. If I try and register the same name it says it already exists.

I don't know what the answer is, but then again, no one here seems to know what the answer is lol.

Logon to the secondlife.com web page and update billing method to credit card. Should work fine.

When my daughter signed up for Teen SL, they offered the option of using her cell phone as confirmation. They sent her a text message with a code which she had to enter to confirm her identity. After that she was able to log in. Does your teen have a cell phone? If so, that's an option.

I do have a major problem with Teen Second Life though. It is impossible to give my teen any cash to use to get started there. There are no money trees, no places with camping, no SLX machines, and no way for parents in adult SL to give money to their kids in Teen SL. As a result, the economy of Teen SL seems to be in a death spiral. Kids quickly find out it's a dead end place with no opportunity, and lose interest. Does anybody here have a solution that's worked for their teen?