… or how few not so innocent kids dictates what is going on on the Internet. In the case that you spent last hours under the sheets and missed the latest news on official Linden's blog:
The Age Verification feature (now available in beta) will be included in our release candidate today. This means that estate and parcel owners can now voluntarily flag their land if it contains adult content, and Residents can choose to access these restricted parcels by verifying that they are, in fact, adults.
Yes, I know it's bullshit. I will rather read collected comments of PN (not Patriotic Niggas, the other troll) than to tell a word more about privacy, freedom of expression or anything similar. One other thing is of interest here. Those dirty little bastards who are reason for all this fuss.
Yes, the kids! It is funny how a bunch of kids who elegantly entered the main grid (if they did) made so many trouble. And they haven't meant to. Those are kids, kids rarely mean harm. They just wanted to see. If they did at all. If you ever worked with kids, you probably know that they are not just kids. They all have their age. And differences between ages are huge. Nine year old is not the same as twelve and both are very different from 14 or 16. So different that it's a mistake to call them the same name. But, adults forget that. Other factor of differences is sex. Boys and girls of the same age are not grown the same. And then, individual differences are making it all too diverse. But, let's stick to some medium values so we can talk at all.
Those nine or ten years old kids, yes, they probably can run the client, some of them will register and come to the grid if they want. They probably won't steal parent's credit card. Most of them won't. But, be assured that large percent of the generation born in the last years of the past century can come to the main grid. Will they? No, they won't. If they do, they will hardly stay longer than an hour. Maybe it is not comprehensible to you, but it is too boring to them. We and our world. Boring. There are a hell lot of more interesting games on-line and on DVD's. They might come, see the poor graphics and lag and leave before teleporting from the help island. So many adults cannot find fun in second life, let alone nine years olds.
Let's go three years more. Twelve, maybe thirteen. I don't know about you but I was very interested in sex at that age. But, second life is not much of a valuable resource for them. Pixels and looped animations are not giving information, they are triggering imagination. And that imagination needs some previous experience to deal with. Kids at that age need something else. They want to see it real. Yes, they might be interested in some soft visuals but more than that, they want anatomy. All your licking, yiffing and flogging is out of the interest. If they want to see it they'll go for the real flesh and real skin. And there are more accessible and easier places on the Internet to get that. If you don't believe me try yourself (if you're not in the office or easily offended by little or more nudity and action) http://images.google.com/images?q=sex See? Nothing easier. And no need to download 40MB client to get lousy graphics. Just one click for the real thing.
The same goes for those of 14. But they know more and they are skillful on the net. Maybe they know it better than you. And, if they want they will borrow parent's credit card or driver's license to fill those boring forms on the web. Yes, they are in danger. They might go and see really nasty stuff, in second life or elsewhere. And no, it is not good for them to see it unprepared and without somebody to talk to if they get puzzled about some not-so-straight practices. But, you should have talked to them already. If you haven't, you're late. What have you waited for? To be 16?
Check the statistics and see how many kids…. kids?! …in their 16 have tried their first joint. If you haven't protected them before that, you're not going to do that now. Not only that you have come late, you have come in the moment when they are opposed to the rest of the world and everything you say or do will make them go against it. Forbid them something and it will become valuable to them. You've already made a mess, better stay silent and hope for the best.
So we either have kids who are not interested or kids who will get it never mind all the verifications and who will get it on some other place. But Linden Lab has to cover their asses and for that matter all the estate and parcel owners have to cover their asses. We have millions of dollars company and dozens of thousands individuals terrified by kids. Like somebody said BOO! and everybody jumped under the table. But in this case it wasn't the kids who said BOO! It was just that somebody was affraid they will, so jumped under the table before it even happened. In the meanwhile, those little angels were playing their childhoods happily, one by one getting into age to see their first naked lady or gentleman.
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