I need wise advice from real adults

ugh. someone could really mess up your experience with that sort of grief.

you have to be 18 to have a cc, so i thot that was something....

It's irrelevant what they may have seen or done elsewhere, including in RL.

The bottom line is that SL is no place for a minor. I have reported a couple of people for being underage and still think I did the right thing.

Ask yourself, if you had a teenage child, would you want them exposed to some of the stuff that goes on here? If the answer is no, then report them.

ooohhh... i accidentally saw some stuff last night........

" And Jonathan get to wear a Burka....."

Maybe "X" was in fact lying when they said that they had lied about their age.
Maybe they really are as old as they originally said they were.

How can you know?
- You can't.

You might suspect from their typed conversations and behaviour that a person is not the age/sex/background/culture that they claim to be in RL, but you can't actually know.
All you have is your impression of the person you deal with.

Yes - and it has been used maliciously in the past.

If I thought verification would make it so you were safe from those ARs id be relieved but it wont.

This was the policy used even BEFORE the credit card verification requirement was removed last year


Thus my position that you dont report someone unless they say to you they are underage,

Not rumors, not suspicions, not guesses based on behavior.

what if the answer isn't?

I was exposed to all of this at that age... Didn't harm me, I didn't grow up to be a rapist or serial killer.

If I had a teenage child I wouldn't want some random nobody deciding what's appropriate for him/her. I'd also a) have an idea as to what they were up to because the TV and/or computer wouldn't be a baby sitter and (b) give my kid the tools to be able to figure out what's right and wrong when I couldn't do it for them.

I know I'm not going to be able to see everything my kid is doing but neither did my parents. They did the above things in my life and I came out fine! I also knew about all the "adult" subject matter that is available on SL and had made my mind up about drugs by the time I was 16.

Besides, by the time I have a teenager this won't be a relevant discussion anymore!

On a side note...it's pretty funny that the "adult" things in SL are actually pretty juvenile...furry sex? Medieval sex slaves on an alien planet? Vampires?! Good stuff!

I think the issue is more of protection. Protecting them from themselves. There are many adults on the grid who will not care that they are doing adult things with an underage child. Having thought on the issue more, it is definitly important to remove the admitted minors from the grid no matter how nice or cool they are.

I generally agree with your point on zero tolerance policies. In this case, however, any kid smart enough to operate the computer to get an account on SL is smart enough to know that it's against the rules and smart enough to know that there's the teen grid. They have no business here. None.

True. Kids see worse in the High School Parking lot on Friday Nights.

Not only see it, but take part in it.

But hopefully only with other kids and not grown adults. =\

Looks like my time on the mean streets of Beaverton, Oregon was a lot tougher and corrupt than I thought!

Where do you think those kids get the drugs and whatnot they do all that with?!

Hmm perhaps kids shouldn't still be in the school parking lot 2-3 hours after school ends?

don't blame the kids. they are just being kids. kids do whatever they can get away with. human nature. those scenerios are the parents fault. attack me about it all you want, that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

It's got nothing to do with how "nice" or "cool" they are. I wouldn't care if they were an asshole. Its a question of maturity. A mature kid doesn't need adults to protect him online. An immature one does. It's a judgment call, certainly, but one that I'm going to continue making. I remember back when I was that age and got judged by how I old I was, and how frustrating it was.

I guess i'm just confused how the ageplay issue between 2 consenting adults caused such an uproar, yet the issue of RL minors having access to and engaging in sexual play or sexual discussion (whatever you wish to call it) with grown adults is getting a yawn. Disturbing indeed.

You're right. But they are.

Meh. That's still just zero tolerance by another flavor. I did a lot of things I had "no business" doing as a minor, sometimes with my parent's knowledge and consent and sometimes not.

Although really that's kinda a key point - if the kid was even halfway smart, and his parents aren't overly protective, you -can't- do anything about it, because he registered the account in his parents name, and would verify "themselves" on any age verification test.

Because it's not the the same crowd complaining. Most of us willing to turn a blind eye? We weren't the busy body squad.

Maen streets of Beaverton. That explains alot! Almost as bad as Gresham. LOL

umm they should not be on this grid are they under the allowed age? I would suggest to them to move to the teen grid and do so stongly. There are a cuople cases of teens ending up on the adult grid because parents signed them up and didn't realize the minimum age requirement the teens were very honest about it and asked what to do about it. In these cases a linden liason was found and they were moved to the teen grid.

I agree its upto the parents. Also imagine a kid shielded from anything bad or considered adult. 18th birthday comes and they are open to everything all at once, think that would be worse. I didn't have internet when i was a kid but i still saw my fair share of porn, and I am no sex pest.

This issue with underage children on the adult grid is getting extremely out of hand. Ya know, one day, LL will have to close the grid permanently because underage kids are taking over. If they can get around the current policy, they can prolly get around all future new policies. Personally, i know 4 underage avitars on the adult grid. Will I report them? No. It's not my business. It's their parents for not watching their children more closely.