Any alternate method I can use to get my daughter's TEEN account

We have been unsuccessfully trying for almost a week now to get my 13-year-old daughter a TEEN account. She loves Sims2 and finds most online MMORPGs too violent and competitive so Second Life really interested her.

We've gone through the registration process dozens of times, trying both FREE BASIC and also PAID PREMIUM, it directs us to use either a mobile phone account (we do not have one) or PayPal so I use my Verified paypal (tied to both my bank account and card) and PayPal says we completed successfully but when they redirect us back to Second Life it gives us this message:

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Your account HAS been successfully created, but an error occured processing your PayPal info-- so we were not able to upgrade your account or award you free Linden Dollars.


Your Second Life account has been sucessfully created.

If you have any questions about Second Life or your new account please, visit our support page.

Your Second Life Account:
We have sent a confirmation email to XXXXXXX
Please follow the instructions in this email to activate your account.


Second Life name: XXXXXX
Membership plan: Basic Membership

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We never get the email allowing us to finish. I've had a support ticket in for many days now, their responses:

1) We need to use a VERIFIED paypal -- my account IS verified, tied to both my bank account and credit card, and I have even been able to purchase linden dollars thru the official website on my own BASIC account

2) Since I already have a SL account, we need to pay a one-time $9.95 fee for an ALT account -- there is NO place whatsoever for us to do this, the only options the registration page gives us, is a free BASIC or a paid PREMIUM, and we even tried the paid PREMIUM option but get the same "Your account HAS been successfully created, but an error occured processing your PayPal info". Also, even when we select the PAID PREMIUM options, the error message stating "Your account HAS been successfully created" still lists it as a BASIC Membership, even trying new avatar names and starting over fresh.

I was able to set up an ADULT basic account for her with no problem at all, largely so she could play around with designing a character and learn how to move around etc, and having her stay mostly in my housing and in my company, but neither she nor I want her in the adult areas. She wants the TEEN area so that she can make friends her age, and she gets highly embarassed at the inappropriate adult content that is so prevalent everywhere.

Surely even if Linden Labs/PayPal are having issues (which again does not seem to prevent me from buying linden dollars on my account with the EXACT same PayPal account), there must be some alternate process to open a TEEN account? Why is she able to open/use an ADULT account but not a TEEN account?

It is very frustrating, every day she asks me if there is any progress and I tell her "soon" but I now realize this could potentially go on weeks/months.

Is there NO other way for her to get her TEEN account? I considered reporting that her birthdate was incorrectly filed on her working basic account, in hopes they would MOVE that account to the TEEN section, but I pretty well know they would instead just close that account and tell her to make a new one with the correct birthdate, and we would be going through these loops all over again.

She's so frustrated.

I guess I already know it is unlikely anyone here has advice on some other procedure we can try .. but I can hope. Maybe there IS some simple thing we can still try?

This may seem a bit random, but have you tried another computer? I know someone that had this happen to them with creating an adult account. They went to sign up and keept getting the same message. For somereason they tried another computer and it seemed to work!

Anyways just an idea!

And this is exactly why thousands and thousands of teens are onthe main adult grid.

There is ZERO verification necessary to sign up for an account there. You could have her on in 60 seconds. If you were your doughter and faced with the choices of waiting days and going through hell to get on the teen grid or just spending 60 seconds sighing up to the adult grid, what would you do?

I understand the need to make it hard for adults to get on the teen grid, but why LL saw fit to remove even the barest protection of keeping teens off the adult grid is just, well we all know why, it's just shameful.

I also had a Support Portal Linden tell me that they're no longer charging for alts, at least for the time being, so it seems weird they'd use that as an excuse.

Someone in another thread suggested that having two SL accounts on the same PayPal account might cause problems...is there any way you could set up another PayPal account? Pain in the ass, I know, but maybe worth trying.

From experience I know that only one AV account can be tied to each Paypal account. You may want to try to setup your child's account using a credit card instead, and later try to switch it to Paypal.

See, and that's strange, because I had three accounts on one PayPal account with no issues until mid-June...at which point my PayPal account suddenly became 'restricted.' Granted, one of the alts is new and I was only able to make one purchase with her before it stopped working, but I've had the other since December.

I would love to try using my credit card for the teen account, however credit cards are NOT an option for teen accounts. Only PayPal or mobile phone, and we do not have a mobile phone.

If I opened another PayPal account then I think it would take some days to get that new one verified, yes?

Yes, but not as long as it'll probably take LL to fix it...if they ever do.

What about switching your account to credit card and using the existing PayPal account for hers? At least for the time being. You'll probably need to cancel the billing agreement on PayPal as well as changing the info on the SL site.

I was just thinking of that.

I have this sneaking suspicion the result will be to bork *both* accounts, but I might get desperate enough to try.

I tried another computer already with no luck, so I guess this is my next option to try, thank you very much for these and any other suggestions to try.

Very possibly, given the fun with billing a lot of us have been having lately.

For the record, I double-checked that all of my previous LL billing agreements had been canceled, then tried setting up a new one with a single avatar and I still get the 'restricted' message on LL's end.

I went through this with my son about 8 months ago. After trying the same thing about 4 times, creating at least 3 new accounts, and creating and deleting umpteen Paypal links (they must think this is a new scam), I FINALLY was informed by LL that teen accounts can only be created using credit card payment. Does it say that anywhere on the site? No!

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Maybe this thread should be stickied.

What a wonderful Catch-22 if Teen accounts can only be created by credit card -- since a credit card is the only option we are NOT given!

Can you tell me HOW you were able to successfully use a credit card -- since there is no option to use a credit card at all? I would love to do this also.

I guess my next question is, have ANY teen accounts been created in the six months since they said they can only be done by credit card, yet cannot be done by credit card?

I'm now concerned even if my daughter does get signed in, that there will be NOBODY there =/

I haven't been able to use paypal for several weeks and I am definitely not a teenager. Paypal stopped working just after LL transferred its payment center to London. When I contacted LL about the problem they said it was my fault, or paypal's fault, but not their fault.

A paypal debit card works, however, except that they will charge you a 1% "foreign exchange fee," even if you live, as I do, in California.

Yep, yet another reason having to use a credit/debit card instead of PayPal makes me cranky...

Sigh. Look, I love SL, I admire LL for undertaking this adventure. I want them to succeed and wind up being The One in 3D VR Internet, I really do. But methinks they need adult supervision...

This thread is absolutely hilarious!

I knew that LL were encouraging teens to take the really simple option and sign up on the main grid, but I had no idea that they were so hell-bent on forcing them to do so.

I love the bit about CC payment not being presented as an option for teens. I wonder why? Maybe they figured teens wouldn't normally have a CC?


Hilarious?
It's so extreme. Far beyond, sad, beyond farce, beyond tragedy, beyond tears of frustration.
Laughter is a coping mechanism here, and plain vanilla laughing isn't up to the job.

The reason there are so many hoops is to keep adults of the teen grid. This was the huge concern when the teen grid was being discussed, keeping teens free from adult harasment ala Myspace.

I think there is no easy solution becuase there is no easy way to verify a teen's age.

Well if the facts are:

1) You can ONLY use a credit card to create a TEEN account

*and*

2) You CANNOT use a credit card to create a TEEN account


Then I think they have succeeded in their goal of keeping all adults out of the teen grid.



So from their point of view, I guess this is ... a ... complete success ....

Sorry for not checking my facts before posting - I was able to use a credit card and didn't know that wasn't possible now.

Yes I would say so there are a million hoops and if your parents play the adult grid second life it looks like the kids can't play on the teen grid (logical conclusion would be to sign up to the adult grid and stick to pg areas..)

Anyhow this hoops thing well I guess I dont understand it firstly if an adult really wanted to get onto the teen grid even with the hoops they could and visa versa with teens so why not just make the signup process "normal" and leave it at that.

Also the fact they assume most teens have cell phones is kinda funny well the entire thing is funny and no wonder the teens on the teen grid complain its boring and not many people and not much happening probably because they make it so hard to sign up the population is kept very low

The verification is with the parents' credit card or cell phone, not the teen's. That was another problem I had in signing up my 13- YO son - I was forced to link his account to my credit card. I issued a stern warning that any unauthorized purchases of $L would result in his losing his account, but it still made me nervous.

It all came to nought, however, as he lost interest very quickly. From my views of the teen grid over his shoulder ("stalking", as he calls it) I could understand why. I found it a pretty hilarious mixture of newbie avatars toting oversize weaponry, prim litter, and a few nice enclaves surrounded by ban lines.

Well, it looks like phase 2 of Operation: Mergegrid is well underway.

a few months ago i tried to set up a teen account for my girl friend little sister.
i entered all the info requiered completing every steps but each time i tried to log in with the newly created account it says the error message 'user name or password is incorrect...'. Could not log in with them on the website either. I tried at least 3 times with 3 different names/password until i gave up. I had no error messages to tell me what i was doing wrong in the process..

Ummm, you put a 13 year old girl on the Adult Grid? And admitted it publicly? Good thing Lindens don't read the forums anymore!!

That said, I'm glad she wants to be on the Teen Grid, and I hope you are successful in getting her in there.

As for Paypal, my monthly tier just went through via paypal, and with no additional currency conversion fees!!

I have been doing some more reading around. According to the SL Knowledge Base:

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In most cases, teens found on the Main Grid will be transferred to Teen Second Life, and their inventory will be cleared. This is done to discourage "shopping accounts" created for the purposes of bringing stuff across grids.

Accounts found to be 12 years or younger are too young to be on Second Life, sorry.

If you're between the ages of 13-17 and somehow ended up on adult Second Life, please contact a Linden Liaison on Help Island and let them know firsthand that you'd like to be moved to the correct grid. Your honesty is appreciated, and we hope you'll make lots of new friends while having fun in Teen Second Life!

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This *SHOULD* mean that she can simply log into her adult grid character, report herself (or I can report her to have her moved), and she SHOULD be able to be transfered to the proper TEEN grid that way.

However I have a very VERY strong feeling that what they will do instead, is simply suspend/ban the account and tell her to make a new account using the TEEN signup page -- which we have been trying to do unsuccessfully for a week. I suspect it is much easier for them to ban/suspend an account than to move one, and so that would be the action they take.

I also suspect not all information in the Knowledge Base is really accurate or still timely, so I wish there was a way I could get an official support person to confirm she can transfer into the TEEN grid, using her current character and losing all inventory items acquired in the ADULT grid. I wish there was a way to get an official response -- after their first few attempts to CLOSE my support ticket, they apparently now seem to be just ignoring it, as I have been updating it periodically but they no longer update the ticket since their last claim that the problem was I was not paying the $9.95 ALT fee (which we already know, that I *CANNOT* do).