How to define a child avatar?

[Syo Emerald]

I just wonder, how do you define who is a child avatar and who is not?

I'm curious since I just got in a situation where I felt a bit clueless and had to question my own view.

[Charolotte Caxton]

A child avatar is one who defines themselves as a child.

[Ren Toxx]

You can't. Of course there's countless visual & behavioral traits that, at least, *suggest* a child avatar being so... rather short stature, relative plumpiness, higher head/body proportion ratio, smoother skin, lack of make-up, cheerful and not altogether provocative clothing, bigger eyes, cuter hair, cheerful and twitchy AOs... to name a few. Plus, as I said, countless behavioral aspects, even if they're just roleplayed.

But for all that, you still can't, mostly because the moment you try to establish a certain, somewhat measurable set of rules... a 'line' beyond which you'll decide that it's a child avatar... then someone *will* most surely come and purposely set him/herself to an avatar deftly tiptoeing that exact line you drafted, yet wearing or featuring some other trait that he or she will strongly argue it clearly makes it an adult avatar.

[Czari Zenovka]

Perhaps checking out the person's profile.  Most child avatars that I have encountered have it noted in the profile that they are a child AV, sometimes in rp mode such as "Hi, I'm 10 years old and have a great family, etc."

[Amethyst Jetaime]

The strongest clue is what they have in their profile.  If that is ambiguous, I think the below quote is as close an answer as any, particularly a combination of the objective factors.  

The official age-play policy says:

"In some cases there may be an element of subjectivity as to whether an avatar (or other image) appears to be a minor.  Objective factors which will be used to decide, including whether an avatar has childlike facial features, is child-sized, has clothing or accessories generally associated with children, and whether, based on the circumstances, an avatar is speaking or acting like a child ("My Mommy says...")."

I pay no attention to height alone, as RP characters can be small and even human adult avatars can be short.  Human children, under 12 are not that hard to identify.  Teens are a bit more tricky as are furries and fantasy characters.

If I find myself in a situation where it really matters because there may be age-play involved, then I tend to err or on the side of caution and report it. For situations such as sim rule enforcement, I'll talk to the person and if its still not clear, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.  Otherwise, I live and let live.

 

[jwenting]

well said all. I'm sick and tired of the idiot "child avatar detectors" that kick or even ban anyone who's shorter than some random height (usually 6 feet/1.80 meters).

Or the idiot sim owner that kicked me out for being "a child avatar" because I don't have an FFF size set of boobs.

[Darren Scorpio]

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Charolotte Caxton wrote:

A child avatar is one who defines themselves as a child.

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This^

As a child avatar myself I will say though that there are many and I mean many child avatars who define themselves as a child but look like 40 year old midgets. I guess not everyone can be cute and adorable like me!

[Lucretia Brandenburg]

As one of the estate managers of a gay residential estate where there is a rule against child avatars, I've had to make that call. Now, there are child avatars and there are underage looking avatars. I've found, in general (and I do mean this as a pretty broad generalization) that anyone when questioned about the age he is playing says he is a "young 18" that is likely to be an age player. Their "young 18" tends to look 12. There's one guy who says he's a young 18 and he wears argyle knee socks and short pants. I may not be up on fashion but I can't imagine any 18 year old wanting to wear argyle knee socks ; )

Height means nothing. I was booted from a G rated sim years ago when someone there accused me of being a child avatar because I was my RL height of 5'3" so I took off my clothes and asked if that looked like the body of a child? I figured they were going to boot me anyway, might as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb. Oh, and yes, if someone is obviously very into RPing a child that does not make that person a pervert, as far as I'm concerned, the fact that I would be "accused" of being a child avatar on a G rated sim - I mean, aren't G rated sims where child avatars are supposed to be? But back then, the assumption was that anyone with a child was a pervert. Personally, I tend to think anyone who considers people portraying child avatars to be perverted to be the perverts. OK, didn't mean to open that old stale can of worms, mini rant over now.  

I have noticed a lot of child avatars will talk "baby talk" far beyond the supposed age of their avi .. no, 4 year olds do not talk like 2 year olds in RL and by that age, most can speak quite plainly. The need for speech therapy aside, baby talk is a pretty good indication.  Now, the younger than 12, genuine child avatars rather than surrepticious age players, as another poster said, tend to look like kids. Button noses, big heads, big eyes, chubby cheeks, freckles, a sway to the back that pooches their stomach out, and wear children's hair styles and clothing. And they usually do state the age they are portraying in their profiles.

By the way, nekos tend to look very early adolescent and childlike; that's the aesthetic, if they look 14 I just add a decade and call it a day.

[Solaria Goldshark]

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Syo Emerald wrote:

I just wonder, how do you define who is a child avatar and who is not?

I'm curious since I just got in a situation where I felt a bit clueless and had to question my own view.

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Child avatar?  or "child" using an avatar?

I would think the former would be obvious by appearance.

Just to clarify

[Lucretia Brandenburg]

Solaria,

I remember whenever there was a school holiday, being all but accosted by someone dressed all in freebies without an AO and one of those lollipop freebie naughty bits. Children behind avatars in SL tend to be easy to spot if its a school holiday and someone fitting the above description says he's madly in love with you baby, and wants to have sex, OR better yet takes the "Come with me, B**ch, you are Mine to use" approach. And yes, that line was actually used on me once LOL ; )

[Solar Legion]

Having Role Played in text for years prior to coming to Second Life, I can affirm the generalization of Nekos .... But I can take that a step farther as well: Almost all hybrids (be they cat, canine, vulpine, rodent, etc) have that sort of appearance. And not just the female variations either!

Why do I mention my years as a text only Role Player? Because even in text, the descriptions matched that aesthetic. For chat room type services, some players even went out to track down anime images that somewhat matched their characters.

I have seen the exact same thing here in Second Life as well. Nearly all hybrids look to be 14 or younger!

That same generalization can also be applied to almost any non-human in general.

And lets not get into furs. It's rather difficult to tell what age a fur is supposed to be in a visual manner without a few dead giveaways.

[161488303349]

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Darren Scorpio wrote:

many child avatars who define themselves as a child but look like 40 year old midgets. I guess not everyone can be cute and adorable like me!

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jejejejejjee (:

[Miserlie]

I've roleplayed as a child before, never in secondlife but in other virtual worlds, I see the midgets that call themselve's kids they have big boobs and wear crop tops and high heel's everyday. Since you would only have to be a active roleplayer tp actually run into this situation, you can tell who is a kid by the way they talk or act and their profile of course. If you see a ''kid'' on a adult roleplay sim, don't harass them, just go on about your teleporting because  there really is alot of 4'3 avatars in secondlife. Also alot of kids wear mesh avatars so thats a thing to look out for as well.

[solstyse]

I think there are a few main ways, and height has nothing to do with either.

1. many times a child avatar will look VERY childlike. I'm not talking just petite, or with breasts that reflecct rl sizes more than sl sizes, or a man who's abs aren't exactly chiseled. that is an unfair way to judge, since some grown women aren't as well-endowed as others, and some rl men aren't exactly the bodybuilder type. There are midgets out there too, I'm sure. but a combination of things that make you say... "Wait a minute" might make you choose to keep anything you say to a certain avi g-rated. Sometimes it may be difficult to tell the difference between someone who plays a 16 year old or someone who plays a 20 year old. In that case, an IM will usually clear this up.

(Interdsting sidenote: I've been to sims where it seemed like everyone that was there was 19 or 20, because one of the most fun activities was sneeking into the bars, but everyone wanted full SL rights. It was much fun roleplaying getting into all kinds of trouble for that while still being in full compliance with LL's TOS)

2. Profiles. Many people who play as children want to make it perfectly clear. Some adults will simply state "adult, exact age unknown" or something like that, particularly in sims where certain characters are less civilized. Again, if there's question, an IM will clear this up.

3. Language to an extent. It's fairly easy to tell the difference between someone who speaks english as a second language, someone who roleplays as if english is their second language, and someone who is trying to sound childlike. EG: love, spelled as "wuv" might indicate a child. Spelled as "luff" might indicate a thick accent. Stereotypically, there will be different grammatical mistakes made by children than by foreigners.