How do I access mature content in-world when I can't change the preferences?

[Brad Oanomochi]

Late Edit (2016): I'm sorry for posting this. I was really dum when posting this 5 years ago. Anyone reading this topic now trying to get into the mature areas, you will have to wait until you are 18. It doesn't matter if your friends are impatient and grumpy about waiting for your birthday, you have to wait. This post is now pretty much just a waste of space.

 

I'm 17, but I've searched around the website and it appears that it says by default ALL residents (that includes me and all other teens) are able to access General AND Mature areas and my friends have been telling me that I should be able to access mature regions and they know I have a teen account. I can't change my maturity level preferences and being stuck on General areas for almost 3 YEARS is getting on my nerves with all my other friends going to Mature areas as they please and by the time I turn 18, I'll have been stuck for about 3.5 years. My TEEN friends are also able to get to Mature regions with TEEN accounts without hacking or age verification! I've looked everywhere on how to fix this, and I've even tried on my own, but I can't. How do I fix this?

To those of you who just say "You need to be 18 to access Mature regions," you didn't read this because I know for a FACT that I should be able to access Mature regions. I need a REAL answer.

Edit: I actually read elsewhere on this site "By default, each Resident account has access to General and Moderate content," and it was written by LINDENS. It's the answer to the first question in the FAQs section: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Maturity-ratings-and-search/ta-p/828865 According to the Lindens, the only thing I shouldn't have access to is ADULT content. This article was edited just a few days ago and it was made by HIGHLY, HIGHLY reliable Lindens! And to people saying by default people are assumed to be 18 or over, I don't think you read the word ALL. That includes TEENS.

Now how do I fix the original problem so I can go to Mature regions?

[Lyra Blackthorne]

If you are under 18 you can only go to general areas.

[Innula Zenovka]

Fraid you're out of luck.  What it says is,

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Teens_in_Second_Life

Second Life is generally for adults 18 years and older; however, if you are 13 years of age or older you can use Second Life with some restrictions. If you're:16-17 years old you can access regions and search results that have a General maturity rating.

I don't know how your friends manage to access mature areas, but they shouldn't be able to.   Do you know for a fact that they can -- that is, you've stood on the border between a mature and a general area and seen them on the other side, but you can't get in -- or have they just told you they can?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Two things.

1.  Your "facts" are not correct.  Under 18 years of age you are restricted to General regions.

2.  I don't doubt for one second that your friends who are under the age of 18 have access to Mature regions.  They got there by lying.  A big plus in your favor for being honest.

 

It's a problem LL has turned a blind eye to.  I hope it doesn't come back to bite them on the behind.......we'll see as time goes by.

[Innula Zenovka]

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Brad Oanomochi wrote:

Edit: I actually read elsewhere on this site "By default, each Resident account has access to General and Moderate content," and it was written by LINDENS. It's the answer to the first question in the FAQs section:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Maturity-ratings-and-search/ta-p/828865

 According to the Lindens, the only thing I shouldn't have access to is ADULT content. This article was edited just a few days ago and it was made by HIGHLY, HIGHLY reliable Lindens!

---

Yeah, by default, people are assumed to be 18 or over, because that's what the vast majority of SL residents are.  

[Charolotte Caxton]

Hello Brad, in answer to your edit where you say it is the answer to the first question in the FAQ, here's the copy and paste of that so you can read it again, straight from the link you provided:

FAQs

I can't access all of the content checkboxes. Why are they unavailable?

By default, each Resident account has access to General and Moderate content. If you have verified that you are at least 18 years old, set your preferences to view Adult content.

[Monica Querrien]

I have seen teens in mature regions...am not sure if they migrated over or lied about their age, though.

[Ceera Murakami]

Brad, the reason you can still find some references on the website that indicate that access to Mature is the default for all users is because that is outdated information, posted before the forced migration of the 16 and 17 year old accounts to the Adult grid.

LL is notoriously sloppy about updating references to policy changes in their website documentation. For example, there were references to the "First Land" program still on the website for as much as three years after they discontinued the "First Land" policy. (First Land allowed  a new Premium member could buy a Mainland 512 parcel for L$1 per M2 at a time when land sold for well over L$30 per M2.) If you search enough you can probably still find a few stray references to the First Land program, and it's been dead a very long time now.

The official policy on 16 and 17 year olds is that they are restricted to the G-rated General sims. The only legal way for you to get to the Mature sims (or the Adult ones) is to wait until you turn 18, and then age verify as an adult.

[Peewee Musytari]

Your "teen" friends are mis-informing you, either they have turned 18 or they have lied about their age at some point. You will be able to get into mature regions when you turn 18, which can`t be that far off if you are 17 already.

There are tons of places to explore and hang out on general regions & compared to how much there was on the teen grid you can't possibly have seen it all already.  Maybe you should make some new friends if your others aren`t considerate enough to hang out in places that you can access.

When you do eventually get into the moderate regions, you will wonder what all the fuss was about.