Future of the Second Life Teen Grid
Winne here :)
Recently Robert Bloomfield of Metanomics (http://www.metanomics.net/) recently interviewed Second Life founder Philip Rosedale (http://www.metanomics.net/philip-rosedale-hope-anxiety-virtual-worlds). One topic that came up at near the end of the interview was about the future of the teen grid.
We extracted that portion for you, you can grab it here: http://mnkradio.com/teen_grid_philip_interview.mp3
It's only a few minutes long, so download it and have a listen, let us know your views, thoughts and comments - we will definately be talking about it on the next show!
EDIT: on the 26th, there was another interview involving this topic (http://metanomics.net/archive012609), the link for the podcast is not up yet, but here it is anyway: http://www.slcn.tv/media/mv_metanomics_26jan09.mp3
*hugs*
Winne
Recently Robert Bloomfield of Metanomics (http://www.metanomics.net/) recently interviewed Second Life founder Philip Rosedale (http://www.metanomics.net/philip-rosedale-hope-anxiety-virtual-worlds). One topic that came up at near the end of the interview was about the future of the teen grid.
We extracted that portion for you, you can grab it here: http://mnkradio.com/teen_grid_philip_interview.mp3
It's only a few minutes long, so download it and have a listen, let us know your views, thoughts and comments - we will definately be talking about it on the next show!
EDIT: on the 26th, there was another interview involving this topic (http://metanomics.net/archive012609), the link for the podcast is not up yet, but here it is anyway: http://www.slcn.tv/media/mv_metanomics_26jan09.mp3
*hugs*
Winne
Posts
I would hope Linden Labs will restrict RL kids to real "PG" sims that are "policed" for their protection. Or that they can only go to sims that are known for kicking griefers quickly (like SL kid sims)
Those moves are interesting: First LL took control of all the content's creation business, then merging the grid.
I don't believe the merging is for any kind of cost reduction, but rather a way to increase their customer's database.
Now, if you add the merging and the distribution takeover; what do we have ?
A company that will start some contents cleaning, then going on the "Who want to buy me? look i'm pretty".
I think it's a good idea as long as teens can only go to PG sims and have a teen tag so everyone knows that are under 18.
Would also stop the underage AR's that some use for Griefing us.
The 'real' me would support the inclusion of Teens into the main grid as long as they were restricted to PG Sims only. It would mean that their Searches would show only PG items and places too. I would need to be convinced that tagging them a 'Teen' is a good idea as our young people may wish to conceal their real lives just as any of us adults may wish too. Tagging them may also mean that they are a target for undesirable people on the main grid . Having recently helped a young person sign up into the Teen Grid, it is disappointing that I can never interact with them or even provide them some Lindens albeit they might be a RL dependent. Our young people are our Second Life future, so we would just need to ensure their first experience of the world is a good one.
First of all, let's face two basic facts:
(1) Teen Grid is a failure. I've never been there - but everything I've heard tells me that it is dull beyond measure.
(2) Age verification is a failure. It doesn't even work for US citizens, let alone "rest of world". This was a Quixote-esque attempt by LL to absolve itself of a problem which has eluded the entire internet industry, companies and governments alike.
So, on to the subject at hand ...
Well, tagging teens as such and rigorously restricting them to PG sims and searches is a start ... but I fear it's still going to mean more negative or scandal-seeking media attention (including specifically in our community). I'm not happy about it.
I've also heard the idea of basically starting a whole separate grid, to split SL into the "family" (new) and "uncensored" (existing) versions, whereby teens would be excluded from the latter.
My adult self believes this is a necessary evolution for their business practices. The Teen Grid is like the bastard children of Linden Labs. Flawed, complicated, Continuously neglected and without a doubt, not cost effective. However, my fear as an SL Kid is the assumption that as a kid avatar, I will in fact be branded as an RL kid. There will be nothing in the TOS anymore that underagers are nto permitted. Should be interesting to see what kind of witch hunt this brings. I expected a huge flow of sims to become "M" overnight.
I personally believe this will cause lots of drama, let alone the legal aspect and outcry from residents, but in the long run it will bring the SL community together as a whole.
Although it will take a VERY long time me finks...
Over at Furvana, they have been having problems with some RL underage persons.
Now they have a table set up for age verification.
I'm sure this will be a big thing in the comming years.
I will ask around.