Yesterday L.A. Times posted few advices how to keep your child safe in virtual worlds. One that is of importance here is:
Make sure your child is on an age-appropriate site. Don't let your children on sites such as Second Life unless they are old enough to handle adults on their own.
Not that we haven't got used to these, but I feel like contacting the editor about it.
For more than a year, we are witnessing media spreading bad feelings about Second Life™ and the safety of it. Most of the times, accusations against Second Life are without any evidence nor even basic research on the subject. You will agree that such behaviour doesn't serve the safety of our children and is damaging the reputation of the profession.
As the source for the tips you have published you are citing researches of Common Sense Media. However, those researches doesn't even mention Second Life.
Let's take a closer look at the teens in Second Life. To register to the SL's Main Grid one has to be over 18 years old. Those between ages of 13 and 18 have their own part of the Second Life called Teen Grid. Teen Grid is teen friendly with controlled content and completely disconnected from adult's part of the world. Same as the kids are not allowed on the Main Grid, adults are kept away from the Teen Grid. Only adults there are few of the employees of Linden Lab and educators. All of them are subjects to checks of their suitability of being and working with children on the Internet.
Sure, every now and then, there is a teen who wants to take a peek at the adult's part of the virtual world. Those cases are easily spotted by Linden Lab employees, volunteering mentors and the members of the community. Several times, I have witnessed the efficiency of suspending those accounts and transfering kids back to their own grid in the matter if minutes.
As a community, we are very proud of the freedom of expression that user generated content provides, but we are also very proud of the level of child safety our world has. Spreading groundless hints won't do any good for the children, parents, community and the Linden Lab.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
All the best,
dandellion Kimban
second life resident
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