… 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.
I can’t believe I’m the first to comment on this. But – as usual – you’re dead on. If they are determined, they WILL get in. And it’s up to the parents to prepare them for the things they might encounter and which might disturb them.
I checked into the verification last night (didn’t do it though). They even bring up the minors issue there. So I agree, it’s covering their asses.
What I DO admit though is that only int he last 5 years there’s lots of issues around the internet, regarding international legislature. Companies like Google, Yahoo or Linden Labs *DO* have a problem with their global service offerings. And even though I do not like the approach LL does, I admit that they have quite an issue there. The solution, however, as I see it is that international law needs to change. In the age of the internet it is ridiculous that a German court might rule against a German ISP and have him block Google because Google allows access to pornography without age verification…
I don’t think everyone is “terrified by kids.” I think LL is taking logical steps in order to protect themselves from legal liability in order to maintain the commercial viability of Second Life.
I know this is a hot topic, but frankly, I’ve never understood the controversy regarding some sort of age verification. When you have a service where so much of the content is sexual in nature (let’s not kid ourselves about it) and interactive, these types of restrictions are inevitable.
I think the privacy issues, i.e. what will become of the personal info that is collected through the age verification process, is a much bigger concern than age verification itself. In the history of the Internet, I don’t think any content provider has ever gathered information on its members without trying to repackage and sell it to someone else (most recently the FaceBook-Beacon fiasco).
Peter, it is ridiculous for any government to try to block a part of the internet. But they do that all the time. I might understand China, there are more than billion or people there and the country tries to be self-sufficient, but nevertheless, that is a crazy thing to do.
On the other hand, governments has to do that. I don’t want to sound like a sci-fi futurist prophet, but in a way internet is dusk of the government system as we know it. And no government wants to get into transition. No matter how progressive, that is the huge step into unknown. Which is silly as refusing to go to the dentist. More you delay it, more it’s going to hurt.
Karen, I was supporting LL in their wishes not to get on the court because of what is happening in SL. But, my support cannot stretch that far. I can agree that, due to the content created in second life we might need to keep children out of some parts of it. But SL is nothing special in that manner. The rest of internet can be much worse but nobody raise so much noise, nor ask you to break the law of your own country.
But, let’s not full ourselves and let’s not full anybody else out there: age verification will not stop a 14 year olds from accessing the main grid if they want to access it. All this is not to protect children but to give LL an excuse before the court of law and to transfer the responsibility to Aristotle/Integrity. Aristotle/Integrity has no scapegoat to pass the guilt to, so they will be the one to pay. But it is obviously OK with them. Why? Because they, as an insurance company, count on that, that is regular output in their business. What is input? Well, lot of data can bring lot of money. Even suing them for privacy intrusion, data collecting and the like is counted in.
But, the most important, while Aristotle is collecting our numbers, while LL is buying security in front of the law, while German TV stations are hunting adults in what they play on their own virtual land, while residents are protesting or praising verification system and while parents are looking for excuses for neglecting their own kids…. some teenagers are wondering around the main grid! And nobody cares.
The age of personal responsibility is dead. seems like a long time ago when a kid getting into undesirable activites was mainly the fault of the kid and the parent if the provider had taken pains to exclude truthful underaged people from participating.
I think it’s stupid that someone somewhere has decided that someone else has to be the parent, just not the parent. I for one will not be sticking up that age verification system on my properties. all it means is that I will think harder about any design and work I do, and god forbid it means less profits.
P.S. That tagging game? Go find someone else. I’ve been tagged four times and I’ve replied with comment deletes each time. I am not interested in a game that puts me on the spot, and there will be no reply on it beyond another CD.
Personal responsibility was dead long ago. BProblem is that now they want you and me to take it all.
Also, some kids go on the main grid because many (non-sexual) interesting things are there (that aren’t in the Teen Grid).
Yes, and that is the topic we rarely want to get into, it will show to which extent our society (this is not just SL story from long ago) is sick.
[...] to say about pesky underage intruders that hadn’t been said before, and in a better [...]