I need wise advice from real adults

The only problem is, now they have been in the adult inworld,
they most likely will just come back if reported.
Other then that, you are informed, sucky position :?

Even if they said nothing about their age until now, it's a lie of ommision. And due to the adult nature of some conversations, they knew the OP thought they were adults and chose to continue the conversation instead of saying "hey we shouldn't be talking about this".

LL won't do squat to anyone except the minor. I've known several in SL, and a couple who were careless enough to get caught. Nobody gets in trouble except them - and they come back the same day, they just loose their inventory.

The adult grid is no place for kids.. unlimited sex, every weapon imagined.. today's kids are messed up enough

They should be hung. Then shot. Then hung again.

I know I never talked about "adult" things when I was underage. I also waited until I was 18 to have sex and try cigarettes.

About the only thing I waited until I was 18 to do was vote!

But maybe you guys are right about blindly ARing everyone that doesn't conform to the state. Less people on the grid = a little better server performance!

If they have access to the internet to play SL, they already have free access to stuff a heck of a lot worse.

I'm just glad I am not the only one encountering this problem. It is sad that LL lack of diligence in the matter has forced the residents of SL to not only become snitches but to also give up their freedoms as adults who enjoy playing like adults with other adults.

I would start just asking everyone flat out if they are atleast 18. If they lie then you are hopefully the one off the hook. If LL can claim ignorance about it then I guess so can the residents. Until a court decides otherwise that is.

yeah, anyone see that tv show (USA maybe two years ago) that showed the newly liberated from the Taliban middle-aged Afghani with his new 9 yr old wife, not that he needed another wife but he was owed a debt and the guy didnt have money so he gave his daughter instead.

sorry to change the subject but sometimes we need a little perspective here...

unlimited simulated sex, lots of underage kids have real sex anyway so simulated is nothing. As for weapons, I remember the first video arcade games most of them ivolved blasting something out of the sky.

...and yet there's a huge uproar of complaining whenever age verification is brought up...

It's safety OR freedom, folks. You can't have both!

I am all for adding an "Adult" flag on top of the PG and Mature ones that would require verification.

I'm glad we are superior enough of a culture that we can criticize the goings-on in the 3rd world.

You think messed up things like that aren't going on in the US or UK?

I didn't make any negative judgements about the kids themselves. They're young and immature (again, not trying to be negative, that's the way all kids are) and have easy access to the "off limits" adult grid. It's irresistable to some.

That doesn't mean they shouldn't be reported though.

We as a community have some options. We can report all kids, no matter what, to send a message that they're not welcome here. If not that, then we might as well just throw our hands in the air and say "the hell with it". Let 'em in and be suspicious of everone. Then there's the in-between option where we have some kind of good ol'boy system where we don't say anything about our friends "because, hey, they're cool" but report other kids. Well, that sucks.

Sucks, but it works better, IMO.

Truthfully I would move on, take it as lesson and be more careful in future. Stop talking to them. If you don't want to report them.
While we all have matters that are private and don't want to disclose with everyone else including friends. There certain things we omit from people we aren't sure we trust. We all do that.
Yet at same time if you're friends are doing something against rules and feel betrayed there only two things you really can do.
1. Stop being there friends, do something else.
2. Stop being there friends, report them.
Just because we are Adults doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. I have had other situations not here where I thought someone was a Adult and was mistaken.
Luckly nothing was said or done that was immoral or illegal but it felt bit weird.

What works better?

Well are they bad citizens or do you think they are handling the mature content ok? Do they know they are hanging out with an "oldie" ?
I dount you can get kicked for just knowing people are underage, best to just seperate from them, try dropping a few lines occasionally like "my 17yo daughter would say something like that!", they'll drop you like an empty thickshake cup. Maybe tell them you lied, you're really 48.
Let them get discovered by their actions, or if they really aren't mature enough to handle what they are experiencing then dob them in.

Put it this way:

"Zero Tolerance" is the most awful thing to hit school systems in the last hundred years.

"Report all minors" is zero tolerance.

Case-by-case basis is better. LL CAN'T operate on a case by case basis, legally, but what they don't know they can't act on... and I _can_ operate on a case by case basis, so I will.

Report them.

It's the hard answer, and NOT what you want to hear.

But you know as well as I do it's the right thing to do.

Second Life is filled with those who would take advantage. Also filled with those who simply won't check who they are dealing with, before romancing one of your 'friends' - this is not only likely but probable. Imagine their shock and horror when they find out, or are contacted by authorities.

Is it your responsibility to report them? No.

Is it your ethical duty? You bet it is.

I had to violate a personal trust once because I *truly* cared about this person's well-being. I had no doubt that I'd never be understood, hated, and forever somehow tainted for violating a personal trust. When the dust settled weeks later - I was (and remain) one of the few people this person does trust. Because I inadvertently proved I really gave a damn.

You can't 'guide' kids on the internet, you can at best be a 'pal' that they may listen to 'sometimes' but the moment you tell them NO in regard to something the pal-hood will change significantly.

Consider what you would want someone to do for your own kids someday, let loose on a grid that is wilder than a whorehouse near Las Vegas in places, full of people with dark needs to satisfy.

If you really care about these kids, do the right thing.

Protecting children as best we can, as exasperating as it may be when the parents themselves don't bother, really is the responsibility of all of us.

Unless they themselves told you they were underage - I wouldnt report them. If you are wrong you will have cuased them undeserved annoyance.

If you suspect on your own they are underage but have no confirmation -simple- stop associating with them. You feel they lied to you, what more do you need?

Find someone else to hang out with.

Reporting someone as underage is a serious charge. You are basically accusing them of fraud to access Second Life. Not something to do lightly.

Wasn't Tony Danza in that one?

but won't LL investigate it before taking action?

From what people who have had to go through it told me - the process is this.

LL gets the underage charge.

LL blocks the account until proof of age (fax copy of birth certificate or drivers license) is provided.

Guilty until proven innocent.

I think he was referring to the second option you were talking about...and I'm inclined to agree.

The truth of the matter is we are most likely going to have minors on the main grid at some point. There's no way around it now and there won't be a way around it in the future. Age Verification (imo) is the first step towards this. Did no one else get that feeling when it was first explained?!

I say if someone acts decent then why be a snitch and punish them for being able to get along with adults? I have yet to find anything in SL that I wasn't already aware of by 16 or couldn't have found simply by wandering around downtown! And if I AM 16 wandering around downtown who's responsibility is that? My parents'! Not the store owners or the state.

"On a very special 'Who's the Boss?'...Samantha goes on a foreign exchange trip to Afghanistan and learns what it means to overdraw..."