On August 31, it was reported that by order of the national government, Chinese game players under 18 would be limited to playing video games to three hours a week. This time is limited to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, at one hour each day. This law replaces an earlier one that limited game time for minors to 90 minutes a weekday.
The reasons given for this action by the Chinese Communist government depend on who one asks. State media has reported concerns about videogames being "spiritual opium" harmful to the young. But it's widely believed the law is not so much about protecting the young but controlling what they see and hear, as the Chinese government is increasingly concerned about Western influences on children.
Last week on April 4, Patch and Grumpity Linden spoke at the VWBPE. Then answered some questions from the event host, Phelan Corrimal, as well as a few from the audience. Grumpity was in her stick-figure avatar. Patch had on mouse ears and a tail.
Of summarizing what Linden Lab has accomplished in the past twelve months, Grumpity commented there has "so much going on, it's hard to think back a full year." She touted general improvement in Second Life's infstructure, a fair amount of content and feature development, the introduction of animesh, the new Linden homes, new estate tools (still ongoing), parcel and estate management, and helping educators with their courses. Patch brought up Linden Lab's involvement in SL15B, "lots of gift stuff happening," and things coming up beyond Linden homes.
Of moving Second Life from current data centers to cloud-based servers, Grumpity stated the Lab was "very carefully moving things and not disturbing the way things are set up. ... with a 15 year old infrastructure, there's some complexity there." She hoped it would eventually lead to lower prices for residents, but "the migration from the data center to the cloud is quite expensive for us, taking a lot of resources and additional costs." So if there is an effect on what residents are charged, it will be "a few years into the future"
Work on a mobile client for Second Life was going on, Grumpity saying, "I'm looking forward to seeing how that impacts Second Life usage in education. ... There's not a lot to report yet. ... SL wasn't designed to go on a mobile." She stated the Lab was going in the direction of an IOS style viewer for now, "a robust text-based viewer."
Of the new Linden Homes, Patch stated didn't want to reveal too much. He called them a "complete redesign,' from the original ones. The "structure of the regions themselves designed more organically, less repetition, more choices," and more options to modify the homes. People will also be able to modify them from inside the homes themselves instead of "web-based tools" as they are now. Already, the land for the new homes was being placed, "The continent will grow as we continue to roll these things out ... it will get much bigger. We will .. expand continent connections, water pathways" for sailboats and flying.
When asked if they were improving existing tools for users, Patch stated they haven't gotten new ideas or requests from the residents, going on to say his team doesn't make the tools regular users of Second Life put to use, but use them as well. Grumpity called it "eating our our dog food," commenting one can only put so much on a prim.
Of Sansar, Grumpity stated she and Patch have been "rooting for the success of Sansar" but they've been mostly looking from the sidelines with their attention on Second Life.
After a while, questions came from the audience. One was if the Lab was trying to improve Second Life's Search function. Grumpity answered that there was a project ongoing about that, adding a few years ago there was another for Marketplace search, calling it "painful and complex."
It was asked if having an app to get on Second Life via mobiles would affect age restrictions. Grumpity stated the introductions of mobile clients would have "zero effect on that." They were also asked if there were any plans for a new grid that didn't allow for adult content so educators could more easily use it to teach younger students. Patch stated that would require a policy change by the Lab, "the idea of a second grid isn't foreign, but it's not on the roadmap." He would go on to say Sansar pretty much handles that function and there's been much improvement there lately.
When asked about plans for artist development, Patch responded that the Linden Endowment for the Arts was in "hiatus." But people have come forward to the Lab to offer ideas to move things forward, so he told the audience to watch for developments.
Asked about why the number of groups residents can be in is limited due to a design issue, it was answered that the Lindens were able increase the number of groups after some infrastructure work, notably for Premium residents.
One question was how can Linden Lab overcome the impression that Second Life is a "seedy world." Patch Linden didn't think that was the case, and if so not as much today as yesterday. Grumpity went on to say the Lab welcomed Second Life's different communities with their different interests.
The last question to the Lindens was how would they like to see more interaction with the education community in Second Life? Grumpity wanted a more open forum for conversation, "We can highlight your work, and you can influence ours." Before leaving, the Lindens asked the audience to spread word about the educational resources of Second Life.
It’s been about a year since the merger of the old Teen Grid with the main Second Life Grid. At the time, the news was greeted with a combination of optimism and worry. Some residents looked forward to the adolescents coming it over, seeing it as a chance to further fulfil the idea of Second Life as a place for education. A few offered to actively assist the teens. Others expressed worry, fearing an incident of teens in sexual escapades or caught looking at adult material on the Grid could get Linden Labs in serious trouble, or worse possibly someone arrested.
One year later, there haven’t been any incidents that the critics have feared. On the other hand, where are the teens? Among those offering help was the Isla Sonoita educational community. Josain Zsun announced at the time of the grid merger a “Teen in Residents” program in which those joining up would get skyboxes for six months plus 2000 Lindens. Getting in touch with Josain, he told the Newser none of the teens signed up for it, “Although announced several times in different related news groups, there were no takers.”
In his article on the subject, Daniel Voyager thought the teens had basically lost interest in Second Life and went elsewhere on the Internet. Others responding to him shared much the same view, one pointing out his daughter “didn’t want to hang out with a bunch of OLD people. One thought they as a whole left while those remaining were hanging out at sex clubs with older residents with similar mindsets.
Talking to club owner Nydia Tungsten, she had her own opinion, “They’re here, disguised as adults.” She had found several of them at her clubs and hangouts., “after a few signs, I confronted them and talked to them. Then they admitted it to me.” She told me after a “talking-to” they moved on.
Discussing things further with Nydia, she informed me the initial method of age verification, using one’s credit card number, social security number, drivers license, etc. had been quietly done away with. In it’s place was a simple question with a box for a checkmark affirming that the birthdate on the account was correct and over 18. That’s all, “they create avatars with false birth dates and since the verify is "click here if your over 18" and POOF from thirteen to 23 in a blink of an eye.”
For most of Second Life’s history, residents could come and go about freely more or less wherever they wished. Then a few years ago amid fears of the possibility of teenagers not telling the truth about their age and signing up, Linden Labs declared areas with explicit adult content a new “Adult” rating, and residents wanting access to those areas would have to be “Age Verified,” by giving Linden Lab a credit card number, social security number, drivers license, or similar proof of age. This move was not popular with residents, many whom complained over privacy grounds. If this information was somehow stolen from the Lab, there was the potential of people being fingered as traveling to pornographic areas.
To check Nydia’s story, I took another look at Age Verification. And indeed it had changed. No longer did you need some kind of ID. All you needed to do was click on a checkmark saying you indeed were 18 or over. No proof required. There really was nothing stopping a teen from lying about his or her age. Nydia did comment even if there was, all that was needed for a determined teen was to borrow a parent’s credit card.
Spotting teens in disguise isn’t always easy. While many use lines full of textspeak and acronyms, “U R LUSR! LOL!”, there are some who don’t. While some talk excessively about sex, “Where can I see the boobs?” unfortunately there are no shortage of adults whom haven’t quite grown up, and some teens are mature for their age and talk about it no more than anyone else. One should also keep in mind some adult residents have mental disabilities and may not be easy to tell apart from younger residents.
And what are the teens doing here? No doubt some are looking for sex clubs and girly bars. Others come here for pretty much the same reasons as other residents. But for some, unless they find others close to their age, Second Life’s attraction may fade.
And then there were a couple teens that got Nydia’s attention, “Two of the ones I found were experimenting because they didn't feel right about themselves in real life, their sexuality. Here, no one knows them, no kids in school to ‘out’ them and make their lives hell. I told them that their are real-life groups to help with that. But they were afraid.”
“So for someone to say ‘oh the teens went away to other things,’ no, they are still here among us on adult sims.”
Longtime users of virtual worlds may remember “There.” Founded about the same time as Second Life, it didn’t do quite as well despite promoting itself as family friendly and full of games. In March 2010, “There” closed down citing lack of funds due to the lasting recession. A year later, the company behind it Makena Technologies is considering relaunching the virtual world as “There2.” On the website, one can find a link to a survey.
This is just a survey to see if there's enough interest, financially, to re-open what we're calling for now, "There2". ... "There2" would be a PAID service. There would be monthly charge for everyone, except people with lifetime beta accounts. ... "There2" must be an 18+ site. One of the biggest expenses was supporting a PG-13 environment. This does not mean we would allow pornography, hate speeches, or copyrighted materials-- we just won't be responsible for people under 18 using the service.
Makena CEO Michael Wilson published the survey results on his blog “I Am So There,” and about 80% of the 2400 who answered were willing to pay at least $10 a month to be able to get to There2. He also answered a few questions. Asked about avatars with corporate brands on them, they would come back as ordinary as the sponsorships were gone.
It should be mentioned that Second Life began without the option of free accounts, those coming about later when the Lindens wanted to expand their population. And of course it was officially adults only until a few months ago. It’s interesting that returning as “There2,” the virtual world is making a big departure from it's days as being teen-friendly, and going to policies Second Life put aside.
After I did a commentary on the issue of the Teen Grid merger, one my my readers, Shockwave Yareach contacted me about the subject. He told me there was one thing he wanted to show me. We teleported to a particular sim that was mostly grass, near a corner which had one section of an “X” shaped structure that spanned the adjacent corners of four sims, “Anyway, this is the sim Idu. And there is the welcome center. This is one of the places teens can rez, and can play. Cool so far, yes?” Everything looked innocent so far.
Shockwave then began walking to the opposite corner, “Now follow me to the Southeast. We walked for a while across the grassy field that was most of this particular sim. We soon got to the edge of the sim, which bordered another with a few stores at the edge, though there was a space between two with a “we’ve moved” sign. Standing in front of one particular brick building, Shockwave asked, “Now, standing here in the PG sim, cam into the store.” I did, and looking around, after some moments some pictures were soon visible that were definitely *not* PG. “This is safe for kids?” Shockwave asked me, “And all those demo poseballs on the ground, anyone can watch ‘the show.’ "
This, Shockwave argued, was a clear weakness of Linden Lab’s teen grid merger, “I've tried to warn them. I begged for a PG continent. But this,” he pointed again to the adult store next to the PG sim, “this is what we got. Just wait until one of the religious nutjob Americana family groups find out. Geez! ... Oh, and the empty spot, that was a store. They closed the day the teens arrived. While I bear the teens no ill will, and I want them to be able to play, I don't want them to ruin our fun and endanger our real lives in the process. By the way, there are several stores around these four PG rated sims selling skins and the like. And the kids can cam in and buy anything they can afford, PG or not PG.”
Earlier, Shockwave had suggested a JIRA for Linden Labs, that would block teen accounts from caming and buying outside PG sims. But Linden Labs never seemed to pay any attention to it. Why hadn’t they taken this and other precautions? Shockwave thought, “They are either incompetent, or think they can clean up the mainland by using the teens as a reason and are shortsighted. Second Life can be both clean and filthy. It can be thousands of things at once. It need not be only one thing. M Linden was utterly stupid for not figuring that out. Second Life is not a cable channel. it's a cable SYSTEM filled with different channels for different tastes. And realistically, the only way to keep the grid safe from problems like these here, is three separate rated continents.”
“Back when Linden Lab didn't tell us what to do or how to behave, it wasn't an issue. With teens and the volumes of TOS, it now is. The PG continent along with Zindra was asked for when the Zindra debacle occurred. We saw the writing on the wall and begged for it. But not, this is not hard for the teens to locate. This is an example of the silliness and the danger of the teens in PG.”
Shockwave felt that Second Life residents were now at risk for being placed under arrest, “when some momma sees Little Timmy camming in here, someone is gonna have the cops at their door. Linden Lab will pass the buck, naturally, so the store owner there will get a 2AM visit from the state police some night. The law doesn’t differentiate between my snapping a naughty picture and emailing it to a teen, and them seeing naked pictures in Second Life. ... I can't point to a case where someone is in jail for pixel sex in front of a kid. But I'd like to avoid the danger. I can, however, point out that the law is so irrational that they've charged teens here in Texas with possession of child porn for having a picture of themselves. ... Wonder if a teen having a pic of their avatar in the buff constitutes child porn?”
“I have no problem with teens being in a properly set up Second Life. THIS isn't it!”
What would Shockwave say to the teens themselves, “I'm sorry LL shafted you all. But that wasn't my doing, and many of us BEGGED for a PG continent that you and us could have and be safe together. We saw what was coming and wanted to make the grid safe for all. Now it isn't safe for anyone.”
So if a resident was worried about teens, why not just change the rating on his sim to keep them off? Shockwave answered, “Trouble is, you cannot change the rating on a mainland parcel. And even if you could,” he felt it wouldn't do much good if the sim next to you remained PG.
As for Shockwave’s own kids, “I have a teen daughter. She wanted to enter Second Life. ... But with the merger, she's uninterested anymore, ‘I don't want to hang around a bunch of old people.’ "
Shockwave soon had to attend to some business, and we went out separate ways, leaving the adult store still next to the PG-rated sim.
Last year, Philip Linden announced that Second Life’s Teen Grid would be merging with the main, bringing in a number of young residents. The news brought a number of shocked responses, some predicting trouble. As this was about the same time as the Emerald controversy, it might have otherwise gotten more talk than it did had there not been other pressing matters.
A bit more than a week ago, Linden Lab quietly announced it was finally transferring the teen accounts over. The news made a few blogs, such as Tateru Nino’s “Dwell on It.” I also observed a short chat about it between SL players on Facebook, the people wanting to welcome the teens. The Betaverse blog suggested making February “Teen Welcome Month.” I was also told by a friend that someone whom lost land from the Interlibber Estate bankruptcy in 2009 was going to provide a sim to help welcome the teens, after they were now out of a place to stay and in need of a new one.
Betaverse mentioned three ten-friendly places:
Ozma Malibu over at the Nonprofit Commons reports that they want to help mentor any teens that need help, create a "teen hangout" space on their Eco sim, and provide "informational welcoming posters and a variety of activities coming up, e.g. art with an art professor, various building workshops for the newer teens, more dances & etc. We'll also encourage teens to start their own nonprofits, and can mentor them through that process." Nice!
Isla Sonoita is offering a "Teen in Residence" program to creative teens with a space for six months to work on creative projects on their sim. You also get L$ 2,000 to start you off.
The Chilbo Community has published a really nice opinion piece about the Teen Grid merger and informs teens about their various spots, including the Town Hall, coffee shop, bowling alley, museum and land for sale.
Further down the road, the Virtual Best Practices in Education organizers report that they March 17-19 event will feature a special Teen Fair to involve teens in their conference
Not every resident is expressing such optimism about the teens. The forums are full of comments questioning Linden Labs’ judgment about allowing 16 and 17 year olds on the main Grid, let alone those younger being allowed in if they’re with a sponsor. Chatting with friends, some predicted the arrival of teens would bring a plague of content thieves and griefers, driving paying residents from Second Life. And of course were the old fears of lawsuits on Linden lab and arrests of residents by parents who catch their kids peeping in on private activities. “I asked the Lindens about merging the grid months ago, and they told me there would be no merger!” one frustrated resident told me of Linden Labs’ apparently changing their mind.
Tateru Nino brought up a few details that may help reassure some a little. Of the teens younger than 16 whom could get on the sim of a sponsor, her talk with someone from the lab suggested no sponsor had been approved yet, and the sponsorship system itself might have been postponed. She also reminded that the teens were far less than the adult population. Teen Second Life has always had a small population, adolescents tending to prefer Facebook, MORPGs, and virtual worlds that appeal to them, such as Gaia Online.
And there’s the argument that there always have been some teens in Second Life, the secret adolescents not giving true information about their age. I’ve heard from friends of residents they know confessing they were underage. Linden Lab’s Teen Grid merger simply takes the blinders off people fooling themselves there were no people under 18 in Second Life, more than one person has commented.
So what do the teens themselves think? A meeting a month ago at Global Kids Island suggested most were feeling rather anxious about the merger, feeling their close community was coming to an end. Some felt the 13-15 year olds were getting “shut out completely.” The news of the angry comments from the official forums had reached them, and some felt pessimistic about the welcome they would get if it was know they were teens. Still, a few expressed excitement of the merger, and they chance they would get to show off their talents.
For anyone not wanting teens on his/her land, there's always the option of setting their land to “Mature” or “Adult” to keep accounts of those under 18 off.
So ready or not, the grids have merged, and for better or worse the Main now has these youngsters, at least on the PG grids.
Last week, Terrace Linden gave an update on Linden Labs plans to merge the under-18 population of the Teen Grid with the Main. “Today, I’m happy share our plan to create rich and enjoyable Second Life experiences for teens, while keeping in mind their security and safety when joining the Main Grid. ... Our goal is to provide a safe, secure, and rewarding experience to all Second Life Residents, no matter their age.”
For those from age 13 to 15, they would be limited to places owned by a “sponsoring institution,” and would not be able to use ether the “Search” function or the Marketplace on the Internet. For residents of ages 16 and 17, they would have access to all land rated General/PG, both mainland and private sims. Moderate/Mature and Adult regions would be off-limits. But, they would be able to communicate (open chat and instant-message) and friend older users.
With nearly 5,000 General-rated regions in Second Life, the area that will be accessible to our 16- and 17-year-old Residents will dwarf the 100 regions currently available on Teen Second Life, giving them far more space to create, explore, and experience their online environment and what they can do there.
Our 16- and 17-year-old account holders will also be able to communicate fully with all other users on the Main Grid (unless they have been muted or otherwise restricted). This was an important decision for us, and one we think will make Second Life richer for all Residents.
Beginning in January, “13- to 15-year-olds will no longer be able to register for Second Life unless they are brought in through an affiliated organization.” Teens 16 and 17 can register on the Main Grid. Teen Grid residents will have their inventories transferred over, except for those under 16 not in any group moving to the Main Grid. Teen Grid residents ages 13 to 15 who cannot get on the Main Grid will have their accounts inactive until they reach the age of 16.
... the experience of teens in Second Life is only just beginning. We strongly believe that teens have as much to contribute to the Second Life community as their adult counterparts, and we do not want to restrict the flow of ideas and information between the two groups. We all have much to learn from each other.
Residents commenting below generally were skeptical to opposed. “You are opening up a tremendous black hole of legal jeopardy here,” one commented, pointing out a proposed JIRA to keep minors from looking into or interacting in any way sims with higher ratings than they could move about in. More than one resident expressed fear of arrest by police, branded as child molesters for the rest of their lives. Someone suggested that the best solution was probably the simplest, create a new General/PG continent the minors would be restricted to, or just freeze their accounts altogether until they turned 18. “How many teens are we talking about? 500? 1000?” one asked, “Was it really worth causing so much frustration for so many residents for the sake of 1000 kids?” A few commented that teens already had de-facto access, if they lied about their age. And there were those open to Linden Labs plans, but wary, "Do this, but please do it right. I don't want Cindy's dad knocking on my door carrying a baseball bat."
To read the complete Linden blog post and comments: Click Here.
Jack Linden stated Linden Labs has been making improvements to the Search function, “the SL Search team has been working hard to make Search results more accurate and prepare for the Teen Second Life migration to the Main Grid.” He stated there were new filters for Search to differentate General/PG and Moderate/Mature ratings of places, classified ads getting “content filtering to provide another level of rating validation,” “more sophisticated filters to identify spam,” and changes to the destination guide.
The coments below were generally skeptical to critical, one stating “Viewer 2 search is painfully slow compared to 1.x viewer search,” and another commenting Linden Labs was causing numbers of merchants hardship “just so a few hundred kids can come on the grid.”
On the Linden Lab blog announcement on Tuesday September 28, Terrence Linden announced that with the upcoming closing of the Teen Grid, the educational and non-profit groups and their members there would be able to continue on in the Main Grid. This includes those teens from 13 to 15 years old.
Terrence stated that these teens would not be able to go across most of the Main Grid, but in Second Life be restricted to those areas of their group. Neither Search or the Marketplace will be available to them. “We will implement these controls and transfer these rich and exciting projects from Teen Second Life before the end of this year.”
Reaction in the following comments was somewhat mixed. A majority of the posters seemed to approve of this move. A sizable minority expressed worry, one saying all it would take would be for one peeping tom to pan over to a mature sim and see someone alone in the privacy of his home and naked, and for the parents to catch the kid and file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Linden Lab, or even have the avatar owner arrested, for corrupting a child. A proposal was made for a way to stop this, and put into the JIRA: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-6242?
No doubt the debate will continue as the merger approaches.
Yesterday, Friday August 20th, Terrence Linden finally gave Linden Lab's statement about "the difficult decision to discontinue Teen Second Life." Some of the information was a repeat of what Philip Linden has stated at SLCC, "supporting and developing for two separate grids has been a challenge for us, and has slowed progress on improvements that benefit all Residents." But there was also some new information, "Teen Second Life will be closing on December 31, 2010, and we plan to begin accepting 16-year-old Residents to the Main Grid on or before that date."
Of those younger than sixteen, Terrence stated there was a possibility that younger teens might be given very limited access to the grid in the future. But because of safety concerns, it might never happen, "We are evaluating if there are ways to allow 13 -15 year olds to have safe access to limited locations on the Main Grid with appropriate controls at some point in the future. However, there is no guarantee that we will be able to do that, or when, as we weigh it against other company priorities at this point."
Terrence stated that the Lindens would be "talking to teens, parents, and educators about the needs of younger users" and "be setting up inworld meetings in the coming weeks to learn more about those needs."
