The metaverse is for kids

[animats]

Meta's Horizon lowered their minimum age to 10. Now it's mostly kids.

“I'm not trying to minimize that as a concern, but anyone that goes to any of these platforms will quickly find that adults are going to get surrounded by a bunch of kids,” Bailenson says. “It's interesting to see the directional arrow of what we were worried about actually going the other way, which is kids are just waiting for someone to throw balls at, to hit with baseball bats, to say bad words to. It's kind of the opposite of what a lot of people were worried about.”

Roblox, Fortnite, and now Horizon are mostly kids. Roblox tried and tried to get older users with more spending power, but their average age remains 13. They can't even retain high-schoolers.

Maybe it's time to bring back the Teen Continent.

[JacksonBollock]

Yep, I've seen seeing this too. A lot of scrutiny on its way for these platforms I think.

From my perspective, and maybe way too early to flag a trend, but there does seem to be a marked shift towards adults opting for AI-driven environments over virtual worlds, especially as non-gaming virtual spaces have been primarily used for socialising anyway - which as we all know is not risk free.

It seems adults (again just my premature take  ) feel that AI platforms offer safer, more controlled, and ostensibly more private experiences - where you genuinely can be whomever you want to be - AI doesn't judge, or want to intrude on your RL.

A few examples, Replika, Claude, Pi.ai (gets really good feedback as a personal relationship building AI), and even ChatGPT. these are low-risk environments where you 'socialize', receive 'companionship' and even emotional support. Woebot is another platform more specifically for mental health support.

In terms of creative outlets and visibility, if that's what you're after, there are better platforms anyway.

So yeah, difficult to forecast how LL will pivot if it notices this trend too.

[Honey Puddles]

4 hours ago, animats said:

Maybe it's time to bring back the Teen Continent.

Halloween is over. Stop trying to frighten the old people.

[Kalegthepsionicist]

@James Starling

new home..

[Flower Caerndow]

4 hours ago, animats said:

Maybe it's time to bring back the Teen Continent.

Or maybe even a Pre-Teen Continent!  Wouldn't SL be so much more fun with screaming kids running around shooting things?

I hope your comment was as sarcastic as mine.

[Theresa Tennyson]

1 hour ago, JacksonBollock said:

It seems adults (again just my premature take  ) feel that AI platforms offer safer, more controlled, and ostensibly more private experiences - where you genuinely can be whomever you want to be - AI doesn't judge, or want to intrude on your RL.

 

So, adults are looking for imaginary friends?

[Qie Niangao]

5 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

So, adults are looking for imaginary friends?

I had a long chat this afternoon with Gemini (about Sustainable Aviation Fuel of all things) and he was quite confident, personable, and really seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. Had I seen those shoulders, there's no telling what relationship may have developed!

[shireena1]

Any grid (like Horizon or Roblox) that has a link "information for parents" is obviously for children.

I can't visualize too many with VR headsets though.

[James Starling]

40 minutes ago, Kalegthepsionicist said:

@James Starling

new home..

I think you'd have to fundamentally change how content is managed and accessed in SL for real children to be allowed in world and that's before you consider whether it's even worthwhile doing. As of right now, SL is not appropriate for children, not even on General sims where adult content is still rife despite the maturity rating. 

[Bree Giffen]

14 minutes ago, shireena1 said:

Any grid (like Horizon or Roblox) that has a link "information for parents" is obviously for children.

I can't visualize too many with VR headsets though.

VR headsets cause eye development problems in children. I learned this back when the Nintendo Virtual Boy released way back and we were given a script on how to tell parents they should return it if they bought one for their kids. Current VR headsets also still have this warning. 

[Coffee Pancake]

Horizons is full of kids because ...

• Adults buy Quest VR hats.
• Adults realize the hats don't get used much and make them puke.
• Adults give the hats to their kids.
• Horizons Meta is one of the only free hangouts everyone can access.
• VIRTUAL DAYCARE !

Any adults on Horizons leave as the kids explore new and exciting slurs, full on racism, joining a neo nazi friend group! Meta have been in hot water with users over things like racism not being against their ToS

Horizons is one of the scummiest places on the internet and all the adults noped-out a long time ago.

No. We don't need to bring back the teen grid and we certainly don't need this BS on main.

 

 

Edited November 14 by Coffee Pancake

[Clem Marques]

1 hour ago, James Starling said:

I think you'd have to fundamentally change how content is managed and accessed in SL for real children to be allowed in world and that's before you consider whether it's even worthwhile doing. As of right now, SL is not appropriate for children, not even on General sims where adult content is still rife despite the maturity rating. 

Agreed. I'd never let my kids be on SL in it's current state, they're too young. It's definitely inappropriate for real children, even in G-rated regions, as you said. There are better platforms and games designed for kids, that are geared towards them, and properly moderated so that they are safe. SL is for adults only.

Edited November 14 by Clem Marques

[Istelathis]

2 hours ago, JacksonBollock said:

Yep, I've seen seeing this too. A lot of scrutiny on its way for these platforms I think.

From my perspective, and maybe way too early to flag a trend, but there does seem to be a marked shift towards adults opting for AI-driven environments over virtual worlds, especially as non-gaming virtual spaces have been primarily used for socialising anyway - which as we all know is not risk free.

It seems adults (again just my premature take  ) feel that AI platforms offer safer, more controlled, and ostensibly more private experiences - where you genuinely can be whomever you want to be - AI doesn't judge, or want to intrude on your RL.

A few examples, Replika, Claude, Pi.ai (gets really good feedback as a personal relationship building AI), and even ChatGPT. these are low-risk environments where you 'socialize', receive 'companionship' and even emotional support. Woebot is another platform more specifically for mental health support.

In terms of creative outlets and visibility, if that's what you're after, there are better platforms anyway.

So yeah, difficult to forecast how LL will pivot if it notices this trend too.

I've been considering the impact AI will have on social media as time progresses, my view is that it will become less significant, when an LLM can provide you with just as sufficient of a conversation as people can, without the worry of being piled upon by others sent a bunch of spam or bots trying to manipulate you.  When you factor in that most of us will be talking with bots and AI generated content on social media regardless, in my opinion, it seems more likely that people will rather just control the bots they are chatting with, rather than being flooded with bots trying to manipulate them in one way or another, or scrape their data.

In addition, with video and audio quickly becoming easier to generate, people might slowly lose interest in watching others on streaming platforms such as youtube, not to mention that it is likely not to generate as much revenue for the content creators when their competition can be done much cheaper, with the same quality and will be pushing one hundred quality videos by the time people are able to produce one.

I can imagine socializing on the web slowly going back to the way it was earlier, with message boards such as this being more popular for communicating with others, while social media starts to belong mostly to a bunch of bots will likewise change to move back toward mostly hanging out with personal friends, celebrities, or people of interest.  Those that let the bots run the show, are likely to lose advertisers as well as an audience of humans.

I think people will still want that personal "touch" that only people can provide, an emotional connection that AI is not capable of, and anyone with a bit of sense will know it.  Socializing is so much more than just words, it is the impact of those words, knowing they have an influence on others, it is that connection that AI will probably never be able to produce as they are just not capable of emotion.  Places like Second Life I imagine, will be safe, just like forums, probably chat apps, and so on.  Big centralized systems where bots stand a chance of earning money, or pushing an agenda, I think will be hit the hardest, when the people get fed up with it and leave - with the exception of those that offer entertainment.

At least that is my perspective, I could be typing this all out to a bunch of characters I have created on SillyTavern, have a conversation with them that is incredibly interesting, fun, I could have a few laughs - but at the end of the day, I like to know that in some way I am appreciated, which is so incredibly weird to me 🤣  I like others to know they are appreciated as well.

[Clem Marques]

6 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

In addition, with video and audio quickly becoming easier to generate, people might slowly lose interest in watching others on streaming platforms such as youtube, not to mention that it is likely not to generate as much revenue for the content creators when their competition can be done much cheaper, with the same quality and will be pushing one hundred quality videos by the time people are able to produce one.

This is already happening as we speak. There are currently many YouTube channels, primarily the ones about news, celebrity gossip and true crime, that sneakily use AI to create scripts and to generate voiceovers for their videos (text to speech.) They slap that on top of some stock footage or some images stolen from Google that are vaguely related to the topic at hand, and boom, they have a video ready to go in the span of just a few minutes. They use AI to mass produce videos and farm ad money and views/subscribers. Unsuspecting people watch that content and, more often than not, have no clue it's all lazy AI junk, meanwhile real YouTube creators get stuck in the sidelines and are undervalued for the work they put in.

Edited November 14 by Clem Marques

[Dragon Mommy]

I hardly consider the abundance of underage people unsupervised in virtual worlds online a good thing. It's not a prudish 'i don't want kids around me' thing, it's a genuine risk to companies that actively seek or onboard children to their services.  Roblox especially has been the center of horrific stories, or lawsuits, or widespread labor exploitation of underage people.

Why are there so many kids in those spaces right now? There's a few theories that I keep seeing:

1) We just came out of a global pandemic that limited the chances for children and teenagers to socialize in person. As a kid or teenager a couple of years is a goddamn eternity. A lot of them turned to online spaces to meet with peers and social groups.

2) to really feel connected to a virtual world, *time* is something you need to put into it. Younger folks tend to have more time.

3) Kids have been using online spaces to communicate for ages. They usually trend towards newer ones. The difference is now the internet is no longer only connected via the family computer in the living room. Now it's in pockets and on tablet PCs in bedrooms.

[Madi Melodious]

2 hours ago, Flower Caerndow said:

Or maybe even a Pre-Teen Continent!  Wouldn't SL be so much more fun with screaming kids running around shooting things?

I hope your comment was as sarcastic as mine.

You are kidding right.    Some of you people have enough problems with the pretend kids.   I can't imagine what kind of griping and complaining there would be if the real kids started showing up.  I imagine some of you laying on the ground twitching next to your keyboards.  

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

Philip said he doesn't want to attract kids to SL. Which makes sense. Who wants kids around when your female avatar is getting railed by a donkey?

Edited November 14 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Istelathis]

It is not a good idea to let kids on a platform that has so much adult content on it.. It would be better if LL just created another platform entirely.

[Madi Melodious]

49 minutes ago, Clem Marques said:

Agreed. I'd never let my kids be on SL in it's current state, they're too young.

Many years ago my RL daughter, who was now old enough to be in SL, wanted to join SL to find out what I found so interesting in.   A friend of mine and me, helped her create her avatar, showed her the basics, and gave her some money to spend.   We spent a few days on this.

A few hours later she came back and told me she had logged out and was never going back.   To this day she won't talk about what happened.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

14 minutes ago, Madi Melodious said:

A few hours later she came back and told me she had logged out and was never going back.   To this day she won't talk about what happened.

She probably found Muffin Milkers.

[WeFlossDaily]

7 hours ago, animats said:

Maybe it's time to bring back the Teen Continent.

Probably a bad idea.

[Katherine Heartsong]

34 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Philip said he doesn't want to attract kids to SL. Which makes sense. Who wants kids around when you're female avatar is getting railed by a donkey?

That's one way of putting it.

[animats]

3 hours ago, Istelathis said:

My view is that it will become less significant, when an LLM can provide you with just as sufficient of a conversation as people can.

That's a terrible future.

[JacksonBollock]

22 minutes ago, animats said:

That's a terrible future.

Maybe, it's yet to be decided I guess.

I admit that while I'm old school and generally seek out human companionship as a preference, I do spend a lot, and I mean a lot of time at work with just me, Claude, and Chatgpt (they're better at different things).

So much so that my wife has frequently said 'go ask your friend's, or 'go play with your mates'

There are huge dangers obviously for society if we start to rely on these things for companionship, not necessarily from the AI themselves, but from the goal driven behavior entrained in them by the huge platforms that own them.

[JacksonBollock]

6 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

So, adults are looking for imaginary friends?

It's possibly a sad indictment of modern society but a lot of adults, particularly our elderly and/or vulnerable and/or housebound, are looking for any 'friends' they can get.

An AI might not be their first choice, but AI are only getting better at 'mimicking affect', so better than nothing.

As a society we could do much more, as individuals, as sons, as daughters, as neighbors we could do a lot more - but we don't , so we'll train AI to do it for us.

https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demographic-change-and-healthy-ageing/social-isolation-and-loneliness

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173418268/loneliness-connection-mental-health-dementia-surgeon-general

Edited November 14 by JacksonBollock