Rumours of Teen Second Life being merged with the ‘main grid’ of Second Life have been circulating almost weekly since 2007.
If you’ve been around long enough, you’re probably so inured to the rumours that the announced closure of Teen Second Life at Rosedale’s SLCC keynote comes as something of a surprise.
Teens aged 16 or 17 will be migrated to the main-grid with the rest of the adults, and presumably restricted to G-rated spaces until they are 18 (G, according to Linden Lab is suitable “for grade-schoolers or grandma”). New signups to Second Life will have a minimum age of 16 rather than the current 18.
Teens under 16 years of age will lose access entirely. It isn’t clear whether their accounts will be suspended until they turn 16 (which would require a lot of accounting), or just closed.
Teen Second Life has been problematic for a long time. Shuttered away in an inaccessible location on the main grid, Teen Second Life has always been a bit of a second-class ghetto, seemingly ignored or forgotten by Linden Lab for long stretches of time since Blue Linden/Cyan Linden’s tenure as Teen Grid Manager. According to some adults with special access to Teen Second Life, a number of quite rambunctious hate-groups have flourished among some segments of the teen population as a result.
On turning 18, teens had to say goodbye to all of their friends and their accounts were migrated to the adult portion of Second Life. Retention for migrated teens, cut off from their friends and usual hangouts wasn’t noticeably all that much better than the retention of new users generally.
A side-effect of all of this is that one might reasonably expect Linden Lab to become super-zealous about enforcing the grade-schoolers-and-grandma requirements for G-rated areas – there are doubtless plenty of people who would like Second Life to fail who would love to point the finger at a 16 or 17 year old coming into contact with prurient content on Second Life’s main grid.
That’s a whole PR mess waiting to happen, and with even the most zealous enforcement, inevitably it will.
I’m not expecting the influx of teens into main grid accounting to have a hugely significant effect on certain key metrics like concurrency, as the teen population so far has been miniscule, and only two-fifths of the age-bands are migrating across.
I still don’t have access to transcripts of the session (sometimes SLCC is like another planet), but I don’t believe any specific date for the closure has been announced as yet.
Given the content that’s been allowed on the Teen Grid:
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?ID=276582
I’d say PG SL doesn’t have much to worry about. (^_^)
The REAL worry in my mind is that it’ll still be possible to chat in IMs. Content be darned… What about safety? (._.)
After the educational track, when everyone was talking amongst themselves, someone (I didn’t recognize the voice) said the merge was to take place in December after this school session is out. I don’t know if that was mere speculation or based on what Philip said during the session.
imnotgoingsideways – not sure i get your point there. as for overall policing anyone i suspect of being sub 18 (subhuman anyone?) gets the boot. period
Sirhc, understand that (within the limits of the TOS), you’re within your rights to ban anyone off your land for any reason, but do you really want to become known for kicking people off merely on the basis of their age?
I’ll be the first to confess that to date I’ve also had a personal policy that tries to keep to the TOS, and has yet unwittingly resulted in me harbouring underaged residents on a number of occasions (I’ve made reports as required of me when faced with clear proof of a resident being underage, tho so cut me some space on that). It’s also resulted in some pretty interesting ideas in my business, and I make no apologies in that regard, tapping into the creativity of people less than half my age and less burdened by fears, dogma, and the need to keep a L$ flow going properly on their own SL life.
My advice on your position?
Look to their maturity and kick people based on age only because they’re too young for the content rating in question, or inappropriate behaviours. That would be my advice – it lets you avail yourself of a skillset that some of these new folk may bring to your endeavors, whether they be hard skills (e.g. texturing, scripting, sculpting/building) or soft ones (event hosting, negotiations, social media manipulation etc.).
You must remember one other thing – while the merger of both grids is a sweet victory of sorts, it is also bittersweet for some residents – anyone 12-15 is being cut off till they turn 16, and these folks will have built relations with other 16+ year old teen gridders inevitably. There will probably still be contact between them external to LL-provided inworld acess, but it will still hurt. The last thing you want to do is start a war with these kids while they’re reeling from the ‘walking wounded’ feeling – YOU might get a reaction that is undesirable or, worse, unmanageable (this applies to everyone as we welcome these new folks to THE grid where EVERYTHING ELSE HAPPENS)
Excuse me while I hop off this soapbox to change my soaked dressings now… (typing from hospital)
P.S. Remember, Jesse Malthus was only 14 when he helped make Second Life a better place. Granted he shouldn’t have been doing it in the Main Grid, but…
I object to the PG rating being for kids and “Grandma.” There are many grandparents in Second Life and we don’t look for a nice shady porch to sit in a rocking chair and knit. We’re not dead yet, and with our new pixel bodies we want to dance, flirt, build, create, and even role play. We might even remember on occasion how to be naughty!
I have an adult rated sim, which means that teens will want to come to it. We will be vigilant and if we suspect someone is underaged, we will boot and ban. We do not do it viciously, but to protect the kids from inappropriate content and also predators who may find them there. We also do it to protect ourselves. I find that many teens want what they want, and they don’t care about the consequences to themselves or to the adults involved. All that matters is getting what they want at that moment. Adults have to be aware of that and try to protect themselves from teens lying about their age to get the thrill they want at that moment.
Many educators have gone out on a limb to sell Second Life as an educational tool in their schools. Some even give assignments to be completed in Second Life. For those who put their reputations on the line to convince their peers and superiors to accept Second Life and perhaps even spend money on computer equipment to access it, the closure of the teen grid might be embarassing and damage their credibility. I do hope that Linden Labs considers a separate educational access grid for schools.
It should be interesting. Put on your hardhats because the forecast suggests that there will be more falling dildoes.
Well, that is a part of the description that Linden Lab has for the rating. Personally, I’ve found most grandmothers to be quite battle-hardened and many are very casual about things that would make younger generations blush and hide. The G (for General) rating (the name PG was abandoned last year during all the ratings-rewriting) effectively is content suitable for viewers as young as six years old, and replaces the old PG standards.
(Most Disney kids films would not be permissible in the Second Life ‘General’ rating)
Access to content is nothing. That hasn’t been prevented for decades and will always have holes. (._.)
Real problem: Anonymous adults will be able to communicate via IMs to underage residents. Like a fox in a chicken coop. (T_T)
First you have to identify a teen. Proportionally to the rest of the SL population, there’s very few people under 20. If we count the 16 and 17 year olds, there might be… what? A couple hundred?
Identifying a teen hasn’t become any easier. That said, teens may still become the recipients of prurient messaging, whether they’re identified as teens or not. We all are every once in a while, no?
@Immy: Underage residents will be able to mute IMs of anonymous adults, and to AR them. 16- and 17-year-old people are not defenseless. A good (rational, civil…) argument can even be made that they are not children.
Meanwhile, I have also seen verified adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s victimized by domination that did not stop at roleplay. It’s not a matter of chronological age, it’s a matter of maturity, self-respect, and powers of cognition.
I guess that’ll work. I may be phased by experiences I had in There.com. (._.)
It’s not like the main grid doesn’t have underage teens on it already, one of the child avatar community hang outs has ‘Teen’ in the name and regularly gets RL teens showing up, outing themselves and then leaving in a huff when told they’re not actually allowed to be there. The Doctor Who fan sims often get what sounds like little kids showing up in adult avatars, but openly telling people over voice that they’re ten or whatever. I’m sure there are others who aren’t so stupid as to tell everyone they meet how old they are…
Hey there
I’m actually a resident of teen secondlife and found this posting while browsing to find more information about this new development. Linden Labs abandoned us long ago, and I’m glad they’re finally fixing that mistake. I’m excited that we’ll have access to all the amazing content the Main Grid offers. I’m a designer and the only thing that is concerning to me is the difference in prices between the two grids. You tell a Teen Grid Resident that AOs can get up to 8000 and they think you’re insane or about 11 years of age. I’m fairly well off by our grid’s standards, however.. a shopping spree after I get merged into the grid will leave me broke in a day, if that.
The main reason they made this decision is the massive amount of copybotting that is going on. By keeping Teen Grid and Main Grid seperate, they choked us smaller people out on the content side of things. And of course, as stubborn teens, a lot of the residents will find a way to get what they want. I’ll admit, I had a MG account for a while,(now banned) I know what we’re getting into. I think the new filters will be effective enough to keep us away from all your uh, adult activities as I should say.
I’d also like to note that the teen grid residents are aware of this nifty little feature that Second Life offers called a “Mute” button.
Most of the people that will be merging with your grid are pretty aware of whats going on and would know when they should use this feature.
There will always be exceptions and I can understand that.
Some of our grid’s residents are also concerned about being contacted inappropriately by adults.
Welcome to the discussion, Kairi
And — preemptively — welcome to the main grid. 
Why thank you. So window shopping here, but anybody know any cheap rental areas? I need to find a place to plant my store when I transfer. Of course it’ll be a while but jog some notes.
I appreciate that some responders to this announcement (on other blogs) are making suggestions for educators who still want to use virtual worlds with kids under 16 as to alternative choices for programs or projects (example: ReactionGrid )
To be completely honest, even as a resident I’m not aware of any educational programs on Teen Second Life open to the public or really even private ones.
Quick response to Patch first – I have no problem with teens on the grid being creative I just don’t want them on my land. Period. I will stick by my rule – if I suspect an av is underage, cannot have someone else verify them that I know or will not self verify in voice (and if you are gender changing and don’t want to speak then tough. I don’t care if you are martian in RL as long as you are over 18)
Don’t get me wrong I think they will bring a breath of fresh air into the world (hey maybe clubs that don’t play music for us 40+ headbangers) and hopefully some great creativity. Any protection measures are the same as RL. Probably won’t work but not my prob anyway as I have no kids.
So it remains. My rules are:
Suspected underage – kicked off
Kiddy AV – kicked off.
Script kiddy griefer etc – kicked off (should really thank them for pointing out flaws but wth)
Nazi or similar – kicked, banned and I only wish thrown into Hells deepest pit
I am from Teen Second Life, been playing for over a year now so i thought id add my opinions to this. The MG-TG merge is actually the dumbest thing i have heard in some parts. a lot of us own land in the Teen grid or share land with friends who are under 16(my army is sharing land with my 15year old friend who wont turn 16 until next year). So here are a few things that came to my mind.
1. What happens to our current land that we spend our hard-worked $L on(whether from selling stuff we create on SL or whether we used money that we earned from jobs in RL)
2. Most teens are suffering an even greater job loss then adults due to the less experience thing that comes with age so how can we afford anything on MG?
3. I have seen Education Regions in Teen Second Life but they are always unused except for one or two
4. yes there are Hate groups in second life but actually not as many as people would think. most of the groups i seen are companies, family groups(for SL families), Role-playing groups, or groups just meant to be fun. matter of fact, I’ve failed to see any active hate groups in TSL.
———————————————–
@sirhc desantis
You can not just eject/ban people for some of the reasons you posted.
Suspected underage – try and comfirm first if not warn the person before ejection.
Kiddy AV – some “kiddy av”s are really fun to wear, even for adults. If my dad played SL he would enjoy being in an AV of BatMan. but i guess that depends on your definition of “kiddy av” that your using.
griefers – this i agree with. objects like the Griefer Multitool and the DwiTech Multitool which are made for griefing or can be used inappropriately for such have reasons to be ejected then banned.
Nazi or similar – i have seen Role-playing groups of WW2 in TSL which included Nazi parts. it was not a hate group but was actually a way to learn what happened in WW2 through different points of views(even though some of the Nazi uniforms created were of good detailed compared to the actual uniforms). in replace of just ejecting people for wearing Nazi stuff. just eject for being stereotypical or racist
——————————————–
If LL is worried about “adult” activities. think about these.
Teenagers(and kids) are ALWAYS exposed to “adult” content. Family Guy, The Simpsons, nearly any comidy show, half of disney’s PG and G rated films, music, books, internet, etc. So attempting to seperate the 16 and 17yr old players from “adult content” is like the president or congress banning everything “adult content” in the US from Teens and kids. If they want to try anything, try removing the content from the game.
———————————————
Back to my main concern once again. Virtual Land.
Virtual land will possible be the hardest thing to come by once in MG. There’s what, tens of thousands of adult players(if not more if you look at the numbers at the top-right of the viewers). most of which possibly own land. Everyone in TSL will be losing land. and because everyone knows that TSL will be closed and that 16 and 17 will be transferring, everyone is attempting to sell their land in order to get as much $L as possible from what they owned. Their also not buying land because they will be transferring which would be a waste of $L. or no one has the $L to buy every ones land in the first place(never less the real life money to pay for the tier of every single region on TSL).
and there is a high chance that LL don’t even care about our loss’ truthfully when it comes to most stuff. If we(the players of TSL) lose every sq. meter of land because of this “merge”, LL will more then likely do nothing to replace it or to give us something worth it in return for this forcefully induced transfer and closure of TSL.
some people might think, “oh, if you were going to be 18 you would lose your land anyway”. True. but at least there were people who were 13 to 17 who could buy the land from the person before the transfer considering there were actually a few thousand players online on TSL every week. some of which have a lot of $L or ways to pay for the land.
———————————————————–
I have actually noticed more Cons for the “merge” than there are pro’s for the TSL players. And I’ve seen mostly cons and maybe a pro or two for the already playing Adult players
Teen Cons:
-Loss of land
-loss of friends
-gain of value of $L to teens(it’ll be harder to come by then it already was, which is BAD)
-restricted from areas of content that are never less available in real life(whether legally or illegally have access to)
Teen Pros:
-see old friends
-not have to sneak into MG with an ALT account
(and i was stuck at only those two pros. lol)
Adult Cons:
-have to deal with the immature teens that there will be in MG now.
-compete with the skillz of some of us TSL players.
-possible loss of land or gain in value of $L
Adult Pros:
-see old friends
-parents can monitor their children better(for parents who also play)?
~~please be aware these are just some of the possible/probable Pro’s and Con’s. not all of them.~~
————————————————
So i myself think this is the wrong thing to do. If i had the power to choose what they should do i would actually just hire more people to work on TSL and to monitor it. I would create a 3rd grid which can be accessed by both Adults and Teens whenever they wish but does not allow passage into the other grid,
[
TG(teen grid) - 13-18 only
MG(main grid) - 18+ only
OG(open grid) - 13+
]
ex. Using OG to sneak your way into MG through some glitch of vis-versa.
If you wish to speak to me about this please reply here(i get emails when people reply on here) or contact me on TSL or MG
TSL: Paranormal Scorpio
MG: ParanormalScorpio Galaxy (this account was created just recently, as in 3 days ago, to find the status of old friends and to prepare for the transfer by finding out land locations, sandboxes, and other places. it was NOT created for the adult content areas considering i have no need to look for them when i am far to busy with my own stuff)
I have mixed opinions on this:
I think that it is GREAT that the 16 and 17 year olds are being merged with the main grid. I think it is TERRIBLE that Linden Lab is dropping the 13-15 year olds. I think ALL Teen Grid residents should be brought over. In fact, I think that even younger players should be allowed with parental consent.
While I understood the reasoning of separating the Teen Grid originally, now that the classifications are better defined it makes sense to have the Teen Grid and the Main Grid merged. I know I likely hold a minority opinion, however I believe the following:
1) We don’t segregate children outside SL in the physical world, so we shouldn’t in the virtual world. All children that live in my city share same physical space as the adults. There are activities where minors are unwelcome, such as attending bars, buying cigarettes, and entering places of adult entertainment, so IDs are checked at those locations. Second Life should be the same way. I have always found it stupid that a parent and their 15 year old were forbidden to share the same virtual space. Can you imagine the outcry in the physical world if it were discovered that a 3rd world government segregated all children away from the rest of the population into their own locations (concentration camps?) until they reached the age of majority?
2) Welcoming the teen players to the Main Grid only “decriminalizes” an act that is already commonplace. To those that are worried that because of this policy change, the avatar they are romancing or (insert your own adult-related activity here) may be a 15 year old: Guess what? That’s nothing new. Many teens have admitted that they have accounts on the main grid. I’m sure there are more underage residents on the Main Grid.
3) Finally, segregating the players doesn’t protect the underage in practice. I agree with that we need to protect our children, however this should be done by parents understanding what our children are doing, supervising Internet access where necessary and appropriate. It is through the care and understanding of our minors’ guardians and the community that will ultimately benefit the minors, and allow a safe and productive co-habitation of the same virtual world.
So, Linden Lab, the first step should be to join the grids. If you need the money so badly that you cannot afford to run the Teen Grid simulators, give the Teens notice to grab their assets and move elsewhere. Don’t “criminalize” the use of your product by a segment of your existing users. You know they will log in anyway. By “criminalizing” the use of Second Life by 13-15 year olds, it means the community cannot assist and care for their integration. Instead they will be driven underground, and their needs ignored. That’s what is placing them at the most risk.