I need wise advice from real adults

AGAIN: we all develop differently! Never said ALL TEENS AND ALL ADULTS ARE JUST THE VERY SAME. Right?

Which... is kind of what I've been saying all along. And getting told I should go to jail for thinking it.

Ahhh, my first quote from my own post. Ironic.

Cliche: a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea.

Common thoughts DO NOT = to 100% fact for each person.

See, this I think is an attitude I don't get. And it's a recent attitude, make no mistake. Just because a person isn't 18 yet doesn't mean they aren't an intelligent, insightful, and very human individual which can absolutely be worth your time to know. Too many high-profile cases of weirdos have turned our culture paranoid of anyone who dares to interact outside the mythical age barrier. Particularly for the teenagers who ARE more mature, it can be hell - believe me, I was there - when people judge, and interact with you based upon, a preconceived notion that you are a "child" and need to be treated with kid gloves. Some of the most rewarding relationships with other people I ever formed were in my teen years, relationships that continue to this day.

I dont follow your logic if one kid is more grownup then another kid you can't tell they are not adults unless they tell you.

My 80 year old mother tells me I am STILL more mature then her. Its possible she cold get onto SL and everyone think she is a kid. So I have no idea what you meant by "kids are kids" then

If your talking age in years yes they are underage however you would never know some are underage simpy by their behaviour they would in fact have to tell you.

And truth be told when I was in my 20's one of my best friend was in fact 8 years old and no there was no XXX involved. They were just a very cool person and age was irrelavant. People get hung up on age but you would not have known she was a kid unless she came right out and told you.

Yeah but the point is this; just because at a certain age you acted and thought like some 40 year old doesn't mean you should be exempt from the rules. Code of regulations are put in place for the "majority" of who it applies. So some adult minded teen might feel it unfair to put such rules on them when "they are just so adult like and everyone tells them so" and the rules shouldn't apply to them because of it. That's a bunch of B.S.

I don't know what you've been kicked around for in this thread as I haven't been keeping up to date minute by minute. But the point is, they just shouldn't be in here is all. Go to the teen grid until you are the legal age to join SL adult side. Simply just follow the rules the rest of us follow.

Yes they should not be here this I agree with but that's because its become a rule and legal issue with "the pron" on the other hand. YOu can't stop kids from signing up and I doubt any avs system will stop them if they really want to and they may not even go anywhere near the "pron" and only be here due to the cool scripting and products and avatars and stuff (which in fact is quite common as being a larger population and an older one in time in existance we have more things for them to do. The teen grid from what I understand is rather umm understimulating as in not much to do and its small and very few choices of products etc)

Of course rules have to apply equally... that's a modern-day mantra, sadly. But it's not my job to enforce the rules. I feel no obligation to help another person enforce a rule in a situation where I don't find it necessary.

Again, zero tolerance is asinine. In trying to be fair to everyone, it promotes disconnecting the brain from the decision making process.



I find the teen grid just as dumb as zero tolerance.

"Hey, kid. You know those 37 friends you made?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you turned 18 last night. You can never talk with them again until they turn 18. I guess in a couple years you can catch up."

Ok, I'll walk through this fire with you Wilhelm.

Kids are kids - I can't break it down for you. It is what it is and in this case of this topic it is about the legal age of entry into the adult world.

So you were an adult in a child's body. That's great, so was my Mother and so was I. So what? My logic is this: there is an environment based on and for the "majority" of kids, hence SL Teen. There is an environment based on and for the "majority" of adult minded folk, SL.

Just like in Junior High (or Middle School) if you have a friend a few years younger and you are now on your way to High School. Same thing.

Also, unless you are a teen yourself, if you can go into SL Teen as an adult, why can't the 18 year old go back too and visit?

I have no idea what the teen grid is like as I've never even attempted to go there. So now you got me a little confused on that one.

I only read the first page and since the OP asked what others would...

I would do nothing. If these under agers behaved maturely, and they haven't directly disclosed their age (and even if they did), what does it matter?

Again... if it were me, I'd shrug and carry on.

the problem with that lucrezia is them being on the main grid can get other people into trouble if they are in adult clubs pretending to be adults and engaging in adult activities everyone around them is in jeopardy

Just so I understand fully. So when you say in jeopardy, do you mean that for instance, a club owner has a teen in there but unbeknown to them, the teen is found out and reported by another to LL and then the club owner will get a slap on the wrist too?

Just trying to understand, not trying to reward what you wrote! I just wonder about that though. What is our responsibility to all this. If we choose to look away and ignore it, or if we chose to report it, either way, what is our "legal" obligation? So can we get our accounts shut down just because we were knowledgeable and didn't report?

Little confused on that one now with all the hub bub!

lets say an adult gets "involved" with one of these teens
a parent of one of these teens finds out what the teen is doing and reports it to athorites that adult could then be in alot of trouble

from what ive understood in past arguments other adults that also find out about the teen being there can get into trouble for contributing to the delinquency

that is why no matter my feelings towards later finding out someone is a teen i report them they do not belong on the adult grid and that is why i am also a supporter of age verification and wish they would find ways for everyone to agree upon to implement this

Uh, first of all, an adult can't go into Teen SL. But I do have a couple friends (IRL) who use it, so I do have some understanding of what it's like, beyond what LL has released.

But no, its not like junior high/middle school. You can still interact with each other in the same "town", just not in one specific place. Its more akin to moving across the country - sure you can email each other, but you can't really interact with each other.

Agree

While I'm not trying to cause disruption, my thinking is that there is fairly high percentage of under agers on the grid already. Many of them are destructive (aka Griefers). I know this is discriminatory, but I'd sooner see the destructive people ARd than an under age person who acts maturely in world.

I realize the legal ramifications. I do. But ARing a couple of people is not going to put a dent in the under age population on the grid.

Really, by this rationale, we are all in jeapordy constantly... until LL finds a way to restrict SL based on age. And they've proven they can't or won't or some combination thereof.

It's a difficult situation.

In which case it's their fault. They shouldn't have "gotten involved" so casually. Sorry, but that holds true in the real world as well. I could go to a bar and pick up a guy and he could turn out to be 17. It's MY job, as a responsible adult, to make sure I don't do that.



No, not really. LL doesn't care, and legally there isn't a snowballs chance in hell of you getting in trouble either, unless you, I dunno... sat by and watched your best friend have cybersex with them. But in that case you're a creepy bugger anyways.



The funny part is people think Age Verification is going to magically fix things. I promise you I could have gotten around /any/ age verification they threw at me as a teen.

Ok, so your point is they'll miss each other? Well, that happens in life all the time for kids that have parents who have to move around because of their career. Kids are easier to adapt than most adults.

Junior high vs. High school is a big jump and sometimes your old friends who are still in a few grades behind you make new friends. The high schooler makes new friends and sometimes the friendship you had before is lost. So kind of the same thing. Still sad, but true.

I don't see the point in caring this on any further. It is what it is here, the OP found out her friend(s) are minor(s), what should she do? Her friends are entering into a world not built for them or that's legal according to the TOS. Now the OP must decide what to do about it.

We can sit here all day and give our two, three and four cents to the topic, but it still doesn't fix the fact their are just kids running around a mature area and that in some way or another we as adults should feel some responsibility to them. And my afterthought is even I should too. If my neighbors kid was playing ball in the yard and it rolled out into the busy street, I'd yell out after the child to stop and don't run after it. I'd go get it for him. So by reporting a teen to LL that is now in our mature world could be doing that teen the very same justice by telling him to stop chasing balls down the busy street.

Chew this apart all you want and tare it up by all means. But you're not "ratting" out a friend if you are helping them out in the long run. A true friend is sometimes faced with hard choices for the sake of taking care of their friend. The friend might not like the results right then, but hopefully will understand in the future that this person was only trying to do what is best. The adult was trying to do what is best for the child.

So to the OP, I say once again. Do what you feel is right in your own heart.



That's just life.

I still haven't gotten an answer to my previous question. Exactly what type of trouble would they be in?

Contributing to delinquency requires a delinquent act. Whatever you or I may think of the wisdom of it, a minor engaging in cybersex is not a delinquent.

Exposing a minor to obscenity is a possibility, but hard to argue when a) the minor is writing half of it; b) the adult had, until that point, no reason to suspect the other of being underage, and c) they get exposed to similar stuff all the time in other places.

Despite what you might think, I'm not stupid. But it's a needless hardship caused by LL (as usual) implementing something in a completely half-assed way, and I'm not going to cause my friends grief to support LL's consistent stupidity.



I agree, we aren't going to convince each other. But the OP asked for suggestions, and she got them - even if a lot of people seem willing to crucify me for giving mine.




Sorry, if that's the way you feel it's your right, but I can't equate "Playing Second Life" to "Chasing a ball into traffic", no matter how hard I try.



Yeah, and again, if that's what your morals tell you, fine. If I thought I was actually protecting them in a useful fashion, I would agree. I just don't see it. "Because the rules say no" is not a valid enough reason for me to consider it "protecting" them.

i am sorry i do not know all the legal terms, but give it enough time and see how many adults get into trouble when you know a minor is in here engaging in adult activities

BUT are you willing to take that chance?

i am not, if i ever catch wind of anyone under age i report them and send copies of logs pictures and anything else to assist LL in figuring out if they are so they can be banned sent to teen sl or whatever ll does to them

i will not take the chance that me, my friends or any other adult will get into trouble because a child felt they should be allowed here because they feel they are mature enough to be here

at the same time i feel i am helping to protect a child who's parents obviously are not monitoring them even though it is not my job

how is a minor engaging in cyber sex not a act of delinquency? or in of the other adult acts here on the adult grid there is a button agreeing to a tos where it states you are over 18 for a reason

Actually, you're the one who took things out of context. That's because Reitsuki was responding to this post of yours:

which in turn was a response to this exchange:

So the context is a) You said 'a lie is a lie', which is a simplistic black and white view suitable for a five year old but not at all correct for either teens or adults; and b) This wasn't about arbitrary life decisions, nor was it about cybersex. It was about being able to rebuild trust after a lie, something which, whether or not they handle it like an adult, is perfectly appropriate for a teen to work on, and for an adult to help them with it.

Even if it were about cybersex, the issue of them not being able to handle it maturely isn't really relevant. They're going to be handling it one way or another, whether here, making up stories about RL sexual encounters so they can brag to friends, or actually having those encounters. If they're not capable of learning by these experiences, they're going to be hurt just if not more by being betrayed by someone they thought was a friend. (Whether or not it's correct to call it 'betrayal' also doesn't matter, because they're going to see it that way regardless.)

I see two issues in this Thread ..

First,
Should teens be on the grid at all? .. Some seem to think yes. Others are definitely No. Some would report them, others would not.

Eventually there will be merged areas and verification limiting access for teens away from Mature content. This will change this whole dynamic.

But for right now , I personally think teens shouldnt be on the grid at all

But I dont think Linden Lab should have a forced turn in your neighbor policy , either.

-------------------------------

Second Issue,
Should you report people for doing things you do not have 1st hand knowledge of?

The original poster does not have 1st hand knowledge these people are teens.

I think its irresponsible to report people based on second hand information. For anything.

For Age specifically since its guilty until proven innocent - people should definitely consider how reliable their information is before reporting anyone.

I prefer a different law. It states that opting to blindly follow gimmicky, prepackaged-for-every-occasion wisdom in the form of this or that person's so-called law is invariably a poor substitute for genuine, independent critical thinking.

I call it Alex's Law.

Hey, why can't I have a law?

Anyway, here's all you need to know about Meyer's Law: if you truly, deeply love someone, the hardest thing to do would be to deliberately emotionally devastate and then promptly utterly abandon that person. That also happens to be perhaps the worst thing you could possibly do in the vast majority of situations.

So much for Meyer's Law. Better to think for yourself.