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.
| 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. | |  | |
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This merger is much like a similar event that took place at a local bar. They wanted to attract more business, so they converted half of the bar into a pizza place. The end result was that the bar was no longer adult friendly (too many kids) and the pizza place wasn’t family friendly (too noisy, smokey, and bars make awful pizzas.) The place is now closed down. In a nutshell they created “the worst of both worlds” instead of concentrating on one world and doing it well.
LL is on course to deliver “the worst of both worlds” here. Not because adults dislike teens. But because saying all of MG is open to teens takes away the only legal defense when a teen snuck in and saw something they shouldn’t — the fact that the teen broke the law to even be there in the first place. That’s no longer the case. And every adult on the grid will now risk “distributing graphic Imagery to a minor” child sex charges if they teleport into a sim and their clothes take too long to rez (a common problem). Or if the child (legally they are still children) cams into a private home and sees two people in the privacy of their own home doing whatever, even though the two homeowners don’t even know the kid is in camming range.
I will not risk going to prison and being branded a Pedo for the rest of my life just so I can play with LL’s glowing Legos. If the teens enter the grid, I will leave it. And the teens can pay the money for my island themselves.
Unfortunately, the fact that the teen SL user knows how to use “mute” or any other feature isn’t a legal defense. Bottom line – if you own a sim and anyone on that sim does something “adult” – whether out in the open or in the privacy of their own home – or whatever, and an underage SL user sees that… you’re responsible and can be held legally liable. Period. Up until now, your only legal defense was “they’re breaking the law by being here – we have a reasonable expectation that all SL residents are legal adults.” With the merging of the grids, that legal defense is gone.
As soon as this change goes into effect – your best bet is to assume anyone you speak with or IM – unless you know them personally – is a child, and act accordingly.
I just met a “kid” on SL…it was confusing….she told me she was 11 years old.But she could have been fooling me.She told me she faked an age when creating an account…and if you don’t visit the adult sections you can wonder around on SL without age verification….it was a weird experience, i don’t think SL is a good enviroment for a kid that age to be on, was hesitating to report her somewhere…but on the other hand, if she was fooling me…i didn’t want to play along with her game. The dangerous side of SL..some people are not who they pretend to be, one of the reasons why kids shouldn’t be among the adults inhere, they’re just not mature enough to think straight, to make a difference between rl and sl ( even for adult it can be quit complicated sometimes)…and even in the non adult sections there are a lot of things to see ( or do ) that aren’t good for children that age….but that’s my opinion.
quote: As soon as this change goes into effect – your best bet is to assume anyone you speak with or IM – unless you know them personally – is a child, and act accordingly.
That way SL will never be the same…it would spoil the fun
((
Sorry to rain on your parade, then. But if you look at the way things are now, teenagers are treated unfairly. We’re expected to pay for things like a car or classes. Yet the unemployment rate among teens is 27%. They want our money but they won’t give us money to spend. It doesn’t work. The designers on the main grid will most likely gladly take our money while saying that they don’t have the freedom they wish they did. Its horrible. But its how things are for us, we’re used to it.
And “spoiling the fun”?
That statement really makes you look bad. Sorry, but you don’t say goo goo ga ga to a 16 or 17 year old. Most of them talk like normal adults. The majority of us probably talk just like you do, yeah, granted.. you don’t want to IM a teen with some dirty little line. But its like that’s what you’re afraid of. You’re terrified that you’re going to IM a random person saying something like “Hey cutie
” then find out they’re a teen. Why can’t you just say Hey! or something until you find out? Just ask. Most teens will answer truthfully about their age once we merge considering that we’ll be allowed there now. Do you really need to call someone sexy or hit on them or do something appropriate within the first 5 messages you sent someone? I don’t think so. If you do, you’re more immature than most of us.
I still advocate for a “Teen” or “Underage” label on our profile once we merge.
Some big flashy sign that will warn any people who do feel the urge to be flirty.
Those of you who are around teens on a regular basis (who are not your children) are aware of just how much we think like adults. We think about the dirty things you do, except usually, we talk about it more. So really, you guys should be more worried about us offending you than you offending one of us and it leading to a lawsuit.
And just for those of you who think the educational areas will suffer from the merge:
[20:20] Kairi Nishizawa: What’re some of the educational sims Yuki?
[20:20] Yuki Republic: Uhmm there’s that sim
[20:20] Yuki Republic: Global kids
[20:20] Teleport completed from http://slurl.com/secondlife/Epic/17/60/37
[20:20] Cannot enter parcel, you are not on the access list.
Denied.
http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af175/KairiNishizawa/Snapshot_035.png
So the only educational sim we could think of is closed and if there’s so many educational areas in Teen Second Life, how come they aren’t in search? You’d think they’d want the opportunity to be open to as many as possible.
Hahahahaha….you got me all wrong!!!! and didn’t understand what i was trying to say.
( could be my fault cause English isn’t mt first language)
trying to make this clear here…..
At first…i’m not the kind of person that is on SL to hit on someone, i like a normal chat…i even get pissed as a stranger start to talk to me like that just because my avie looks cute. But i do know that a lot of guys ( sorry men, but i’m on sl for over 3 years now so i know what i’m talking about) do hit on cute avies…sometimes their even very rude..
second…..i was not talking about 16-17 years old…i was talking about a kid that was just eleven!!!
What i meant to say is that …. wouldn’t it spoil the fun if you must think in the back of your head before starting to talk to someone ” could this be a kid???? ” .
Some avies are adults…pretending to be a kid,…yesterday i started to have doubts to…is she really that young??? I always treat people with respect on sl..no matter what age,gender or skincolour they have… Yesterday when i met her i felt like i had to protect here…i told her ( cause i took her serously) that i don’t think SL is a good enviroment for an 11 year old to be on, it can become very complicated and confusing , i saw a couple of times that people were fooled, got hurt or became depressed…and those were adults!!!
I don’t think it’s a problem to have 16+ on SL…and yes..other avies should be careful with there behaviour for not being suit….but shouldn’t they be polite to everyone?? even to the oldies??
Well we’re going to have the same issue you know.
We’ll have that little voice in the back of our heads saying I could be talking to some 50 year old. But you know.. as long as things stay fairly appropriate (No completely outrageous sexy talk) I don’t think age gap like that is an issue. I have friends who have children. And I’m not talking teen moms either.
i agree with you….age doesn’t matter in SL. It’s all about the personality and the way you behave, act and talk. Some adults act awfully childish….some of by dearest friends in SL are 10 years younger then i am or 20 years older….it doesn’t matter.
Unfortunately, absolutely none of these arguments is valid when it comes to LL TOS or the law.
The bottom line is, if you’re a minor and you see something (image, text, gesture, avatar, whatever) that exceeds a PG-13 setting, then the owner of that sim is liable. They can be sued, they can be banned (and lose the sim they’re paying over $300 a month for), or they can even be arrested – and at no time will anyone ask themselves whether or not the minor “acted mature.”
It’s simply too great a risk – you’re going to find now that the vast majority of sims are going to go “adult” and/or require age verification in order to gain entry.
I’m a teen grid resident. I’ve been pretty vocal on the forums and recently was able to, through a transferred friend, contact about 20 main grid designers with information to help them file DMCAs on stolen content here. I also run a successful store on teen grid.
Oh wait, I’m 15, bye.
Haha! What a bitter post!
I’m into the merge. Pervs will be pervs. We can mute them. Kids will be kids but the idea that most of these people on MG are as old as our parents or older is enough to urge US to be cautious as well.
I won’t be transferred till I’m 16. Honestly, I want to be transferred right now. TG is terrible and I want to learn and contribute to MG. I’m tired of the stagnancy of teen grid’s business, attitudes, and faces.
I think it’s a shame that I and many other “mature” teens (or at least, literate and interested teens) will be cut off from TG.
I also think it’s laughable that LL presents this plan as if teens won’t just make new accounts on MG regardless of the limit. They don’t want to be separated from their friends or the world. It’s a cruel thing to ask of the 15- crowd.
AND YES. YES. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS. PEOPLE CAN BE SUED. OH NO.
“AND YES. YES. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS. PEOPLE CAN BE SUED. OH NO.”
Yes, they can – and worse. But since that wouldn’t affect you, why should you care, right?
That’s why children won’t be welcome.
Actually it’s a bit worse than that. In many countries (e.g: USA, UK) it is a crime. So that means that the state can send you to prison for it for 20 years, not just that you can be sued by the youngster’s parents.
Did none of you pay attention to what I said? Most teens are not lawsuit happy like you adults are. We’ve seen/heard most of the stuff that you would consider lawsuit worthy. There are adult sims for a reason. Yeah some of your favorite places will be moved there and oh no you’ll have to age verify but you’re adults and it shouldn’t be that difficult. Just because we see some picture out of maxim on your land do you think we’re going to go run to our parents and show them? No. Unless its something morally wrong like pictures of someone abusing a child, we really won’t care. Yes some of our parents supervise but in that case its the parents fault isnt it? For not keeping an eye on their kid like they wanted to. So yeah it could go either way but if there are lawsuits I HIGHLY doubt it will be a teen filing it.
“Yes, they can – and worse. But since that wouldn’t affect you, why should you care, right?
That’s why children won’t be welcome.”
Thats why children won’t be welcome, but it doesn’t effect you?
Look we’re all going to have a giant red A posted on our chests in this situation.
Adults will most likely avoid us like the plague.
However most teens will probably just slink around the less populated areas until we figure out how your grid works and what we’re comfortable with.
If being somewhere makes us cringe do you think we’re gonna go back?
No.
This is hilarious. You adults have never played TSL before, am I correct?
I spot adult content on TSL virtually every day. Granted, it’s not as widespread as on main grid, but it exists.
I was flying by one of the sims one day and saw a prim playing videos from a popular pornography website. Gasp? Don’t think anyone’s ever gotten in trouble.
I’m trying to say this as objectively as possible, but: please don’t prevent us teens from moving over to main grid, just because you want to indulge in R-rated content. TSL is absolutely miserable, but then again you wouldn’t know unless you’ve actually played it.
See im almost 12 but i think Linden Labs should at least make a virtual world for kids…but i dont think that will happen. I mean my mom use to play sl and i asked her if there is one for sl but she said no.Well i dont know….its up to linden labs
wow do you guys realize how many 9,10,11, and 12 year olds are on MG, almost every kid has a computer or even better a laptop. There are so many mature 11 and 12 year olds I bet you guys have met one and thought they were wise. Face it MG is filled with kids and trust me I know i have been on TSL it sucks linden labs doesn’t care about teens and now there are going to be so many more kids on Mg now.
Can you provide any actual figures? Your anecdotal experience could mean 20 as easily as 2000. Without data we have a situation where – for example – a journalist writes that “Second Life is nothing but strip clubs”, because he visited two strip clubs himself, and didn’t go anywhere else.
yes they have closed teen sl down and people who were on teen sl will have there avatar on hold untill they are 16 as i have got for two more weeks.
carnt wait!