Talk me out of adopting a child

I would think no as that is a fetish and something entirely different.
That is for those who gain sexual gratification from such things, not people who want to engage in innocent activities.

What evidence is there of this?

What is the difference between this and roleplaying a vampire, an elf, a fairy, a robot, or a dragon? Or, hell, even a dog or cat (not Neko, but an actual cat)? What is so harmful about this versus any of these things, many of which don't actually exist?

There is no logic to hating child avatars other than perhaps a hatred of children in general, or the fear of sexual ageplay.

And the real reason Pandora's box was opened, is that without trying, you can not learn. Without trying, you can not grow. That is all what free will is about - trying to learn. Learn how to handle someone else's perception of the world, of life, of just being happy when there is so much sadness.

Everything has at least two sides.. often, there are an infinite number of sides, all valid because they represent all the various perceptions of those trying to see.

For me, the key is realizing that my perceptions do not invalidate anyone else's perception, just that they are different from my own.

There are no correct answers to be found from another perception, just pieces of answers that you take to fit into your own question, and try to continue from there.

I think I want to post something Mari wrote a few years back, to me its very fitting in this thread.....

Memories and imagination


Remember, for a moment, what it was like when you were a kid.

Remember springtimes of your past, when the flowers would bloom, when you could wish on dandelions, and -- for some -- when you would hunt for brightly colored eggs while wearing your new Easter dress. Perhaps, too, you spent a weekend or two selling cookies for your scout or guide troop some Springtime, too.

Remember Summers that would never end, where ice cream, lemonade, and all sorts of summertime treats seemed like they were yours for the taking. Days spent climbing a favorite tree, or daydreaming of clouds that looked like fluffy bunnies.

Remember Autumn: the satifying crunch of a leaf as you leapt into a pile, freshy stacked. Cast your mind back to pumpkins carved and costumes worn for Halloween, or - for those of us in the States - Thanksgiving-time school plays.

Remember wintry nights spent at home, a mug of cocoa at the ready, perhaps catching a "CBS Special Presentation" featuring Charlie Brown, Rudolph, or Frosty. Think of the wonder of lights, whether it was the glow of the family menorah, or the gleam of lights strung around a tree. A time of paper-wrapped presents and candy canes.

Remember joy, and wonder, and the happy times of your youth. All these memories that may bring a smile to your face, or even a tear to your eye.

Those were halcyon days where life may well have been a lot simpler, before car payments, mortgages, and 1040s, when you got up to go to elementary school instead of facing another rush hour commute to a dull, gray cubicle. You know, when the doctor might offer you a sucker, and you could do crayon drawings on the menu at your favorite restaurant.

Now imagine those being something other than simply memories. Imagine if you could head off to elementary school now, experience the seasons as you once did, and enjoy a simpler time in your life once again. Imagine that Summer need not end, because the sky will always be blue, with a few wispy clouds some 140 meters over your head.

Imagine too that any bad that may cloud those memories could be somehow lessened, with a sheen of adult experience allowing you to avoid your own errors, while a bevy of other tools can help prevent any ills you may have suffered during your childhood.

Finally, imagine if, as a kid, you could fly, teleport to places far and wide, and make whatever play thing you desire.

This is the life of a child in Second Life. Now, is it any surprise why one might choose it?


Thanx to Marianne McCann for writing this.

Mmm, Mari sums it up vividly and perfectly

Seconded. Thanks Mari. And, thanks for repeating it, Toy. (^_^)y

But why try *to get your head around it?* not all child AVs will be someone trying to rekindle their youth. Some like to play a child because it’s more acceptable in their own minds when they act goofy and play pranks, its fun to let loose once in a while.
I think each and every one of us signs on to this *virtual world* for one reason or another but the main one is communication with another individual. It’s natural to want to gravitate to another person.
Personally I don’t stand around and see a cat on Second Life™ and think “OMG it’s a cat running that avatar” nor would I think the same with a child AV or Vampire etc. It all boils down to personal preferences, “You’re World. You’re Imagination”.

i really had no clue what the kids friends should call me, some call me aunt lizzie (adz and his brother david) some call me miss lizzie, with cracks me up no end every single time. some of thier 'real' close friends start calling me mommy, and thats ok too.

being that a AM older than most of them, actually, i think all of them, it fits fine. in world i may be 30 ish and the kids are tenish, rl im 52 and the kids are all 20's and 30's.

do i think the age we are in rl matters, nope, not in the least. if one of these kids i meet told me he/she was 70, i could still unsderstand that this person, for whatever reason, wants to be in sl as a child.

do i know why we are what we choose to be in SL?? no clue, but i sure am hoopy with my second life, almost as much as i am with the first one : )))

lizzie

FWIW, I had an image on the wall of my cubicle in my last workplace of my avatar.

At any rate, does one talk about their RP scenarios of any sort around the water cooler? Those immortal vampires ever chat with their co-workers about sucking blood? To Lost Ferals yack about howling at the moon with Betty from accounting while getting a cuppa?

Is *any* of this normal?

If it is anything, it's role play. Some choose to me mechs, or zombies, or Gorean kajira or furs, or ferals, or whatever.



Behold the shocking TERROR!




I have several aunts.

Auntie Zsu is someone who my inworld daddy calls a sister.

Aunty Deja is my SL mommy's RL sister, and she also has kids in SL. One of those is a RL friend of mine.

Aunty Temptie is am SL friend of my SL mommy

Aunty Apple is my employer at Inner Child Depot, and he inworld daughter is also a RL friend of mine.

Aunty Robin, Aunty Carrie, and Aunty Lauren are RL friends of mine. One is also an inworld business associate.

...etc.

Each of these became aunts under slightly different situations, but each took that role on through mutual agreement between them and I.



I've wondered why people have such a strong reaction to this versus, well, nearly any other form of RP. I suspect the answer to such is pretty complex, really. Then again, no one ever seems to have to justify how they feel about kid avvies -- us kids are the one show have to *continually* justify our existence in the first place. A good example would be this thread, which went from adoption to "SL kids are creepy and I'm going to be judgemental about it."

An ya, I don't get the adult babies much either, no matter what the avvie choice. I have known a few inworld (though of the kid avvie variety, not the adult avvie in diapers ilk). Those who know me well enough are also nice enough to turn off the diaper when around me (you thought tummy talkers were bad?). Most of the AB crowd seems to stick primarily to a couple inworld locations and do not "mix" with the rest of the child avatar community (or SL as a whole), and instead stick to group-only islands.



I s'pect some of them around 'round SL. There's lots of reasons one opts to play a kid avvie, probably as much as any other avvie choice. The majority do not fit the " guys that like to wear nappies and sleep in cots and suck on women's breasts, you know pretend to be babies" stereotype, however. Anecdotally, most seem to be women, from late 20s to upper 40s, married, with younger kids of their own.



Yer welcome - thankoo f'r postin' it!

Mari

I thought that child avatars were banned anyway. o_o

there ya go thinkin again hehehe

I'd be all over that if it were allowed. >__<　S'instead I'm just short and cute with bewbs.

what woulds possess you to think for a moment that child avs were banned? Im really curious

This is Rob Riggle's inner self, expressed in the virtual world. I think he has one up on all of us...

Uh, no. Just doing bad things with 'em.



For those keeping score at home:

Kids = creepy
porpoises with big boobies = not creepy.

Mari

/me wonders how that would even be enforced.
Whatever the smallest allowed avatar size is, we'll be that size, and call ourselves children. Or we'll use body-cruncher animations. Besides, the visual is only part of it. RP is the rest
Not allowed to talk about rp age in profiles? fine. we'll use notecards.
Not allowed to pretend to be a kid? How do you enforce that? Monitor chat?

I guess maybe count on the AR-happy crowd that has a perpetual burr under their saddle about everything to turn people in for it.

In that case I'd feel even worse for young-looking, short adult shapes swept up in it all

... As if that's not already happening. (T_T)

Interestingly enough... Tall Immy gets more guff than Little Immy. (O.o)

I had a different childhood and I really don't want to go back and relive it. I just might go back to being a child the way it is supposed to be like Becky Thatcher and Tom Sawyer. No grownups allowed would be good. My childhood life was much less painful the longer I could avoid being around my parents. If I can play in the mud too I am so making a tomboy alt.

You'd probably LOVE Goonie Island. (^_^)

GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE !!!!!

can also be a street urchin on Babbages

Now that I've had my morning coffee, let me see if I can throw an intelligible reply in here.

What would possess a 50 year old (I'm not yet 50 - next year - don't rush me) person to decide to prance around SL as a child av? Here's one person's perspective.

First, I'm not trying to relive any particular childhood period in my life to make it better, nor even to celebrate, perhaps, what childhood I did have. In fact, my character is nothing like my real self at her age.

Second Life is a place where people can release their creative energies (if they so decide). For some, this involves assembling and texturing prims to make beautiful builds that they and possibly others can enjoy. For others, the challenge of writing scripts is a creative outlet. Some like to combine their energies and create beautiful builds - entire sims of fantasy or realistic places that their minds eye can imagine. One could even argue that the common griefer is, in some way, releasing some type of creative outlet by caging people in sandboxes.

My creative outlet is roleplaying characters, whether they be adults or "children". I want to tell a story - act out a particular character, much like I would if I were to audition for a part in the community theater and put on a performance for a small audience of admiring (hopefully) supporters. However, not for the attention or the fame, but just to live, if but for a few moments a day, some other persona.

Whenever I make up an avatar (and I've made many different ones over the last almost 2 years), I have a particular look in mind and will come up with an entire "back story", or history, if you will, for that character. A couple of my avs have simply been social avs, if you will, that more reflect just me. No story line, no in-character or (out of character) acting, just a way to meet a few new friends and share fun times, talk about our real lives, share a few moments.

Does this working Mom of two grown (one married) children stand around the water cooler and talk about her teenage girl avatar? No. But not to hide the fact that I've apparently regressed back into childhood. I've sometimes brought up Second Life to others in my workplace from time to time simply to discuss and talk about it as a fun and creative place to "play". Even though I work in the information technology field, nobody I've talked to "gets it". They pass it off as just another (potentially time-wasting) computer game. And these are people that are younger than me and typically considered in the generation that probably spends a lot of time sitting in front of their Wiis, Xboxes or maybe their computers playing WOW.

So, anyway, I can't come up with a snappy conclusion paragraph to my speech (I need to go refill my coffee cup), other than just to say that there are probably as many reasons for playing a child av in SL as there are child avs. Don't lump us all together as either a bunch of infantile-acting adults or worse, as a bunch of closet pedophiles (nobody has really done that in this thread, and I really appreciate that).

Well, Immy gets guff just for being Immy.

However, in fairness...to tell from what I've heard since I've been in SL, teen-ish/young adult avatars tend to get much more grief (figuratively and literally) than obvious child avatars.

I do not know the reason for this; but, I suspect it's because it's relatively easy for someone to accept that an avatar who looks like a 5 or 8 or 10 year old is not at all interested in sexual activity, while it's a little tougher to believe when the avatar is 16-ish.

/me pointed to the splashable mud puddle on Livingtree



Ya, what she said, too.