[New Premium Membership Features]

What I am really looking for is your "free" home not to take up my premium's free 512sqm tier slot that I already own.  I paid L15,000 for my land and there is no way I am going to abandon that for your "free" home, which makes free housing useless for me.  Basically people like me get nothing out of this free housing offer which sucks.

Even more salt in the wound is your free houses don't take up any prims so people like me are left with the decision to abandon the land we paid so much to get, only to live in a less desirable area which has no privacy and is totally overcrowded, or keep our land and not get the benefit of a home (shell) that doesn't take up any prims.  Free housing is a premium benefit that does nothing for a lot of us that have been a (premium) member of this community for a long time*. 

Better yet, why don't you just give people who already have land an extra 117 prims to use however they want?  If that's not possible, how about an extra stipend for those who don't use your free housing.

As stated by someone else, I already have enough stuff an no where to put it because I am maxed out on prims.  At this point my membership is not worth the cost.  I can use the money I pay linden for premium to rent land from someone who will give me a 1024sqm for the same amount I am paying linden monthly.  For example:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Parcels-for-Rent-Estate/COMMERCIAL-LAND-Lionheart-20-connected-sims/td-p/1070799

About 180 Prims works out to about $16 for 3 months.  And that estate gives me privacy and land that borders the property looks well made and not gaudy like free housing!  I pay $22 (3 months) to Linden for 117 prims.  Even if you work in the stipend I get weekly, its still not worth paying linden for premium.  More prims, same cost, more privacy, more control over my land, a better location free from the ugly housing thats offered "free", why would I stay premium?

 

*This is not my first SL AV, my other was from May 22, 2007; I made this new one because I wanted to change my name and at the time there was not that option available.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

@ Canis.BaxtonHave a seat..have a seat on that pose ball right over there...so why are you here? hehehe

LMAO.  "Just the tip; just for a second; just to see how it feels".

 

Its been over 12 years since I stumbled through those awkward teen years exploring my sexuality but I am sure many people can relate with the "joke" above.  I know I am not the only one who has heard that in one form or another.  The problem is a generational gap between those who were born with the Internet and those who were born before it; myself being right in between.  I have seen people my age go both ways on the spectrum.  I personally am very open.  I say whats on my mind, don't do handshakes , and think that 70% of the people I live around need to pull that pole out of their backside.  American society is wound so tight we are a powder keg just waiting to explode.  I can relate to the younger generation, those who grew up with the instant gratification of the Internet.  When I was in grammar school we had to look stuff up in a paper encyclopedia.  This obviously limited the content of the material we had access too.  Now, whether you are 12 or 80, if you want to see someone screw a horse, boom three minutes and a google search later and there ya go.  Have at it.  I use that extreme example because that kind of instant access to anything and everything sets a certain social overtone.  Unfortunately, the older generation can't understand this as they have not grown up with this kind of technology.

As stated above, I don't want teens on SL for my own protection.  We don't need to protect the "children" (16-17yr olds) as first off, I don't care what the law says they are not biologically children, and second, most if not all have engaged in more adult things then most adults.  Pre-16ry olds are usually very immature.  Having to deal with their squeaky little voices while playing 18+ mature rated video games like COD has been bad enough.  I have no idea why/how they have access to an adult game but its obvious that parents either don't care or have no clue.  Its ironic that if they don't care its ok for their "kids" to blow up, mutilate, stab in the neck with a combat knife, shoot in the face, etc random strangers and their friends but heaven forbid they see a virtual tit call the police and get the lawyers.  Misguided BS and stupid ignorant parents with archaic ideals IMO.  But that's the world we live in and we have to play by those rules till things change, which means wait till the older generation is put in a "home" and eventually die.

I think things will change over the next 40 years and become more relaxed, but till that happens as adults we need to protect ourselves.

My personal feeling is that most teens are obnoxious.  Hell I dated a 21 yr old recently and could barely deal with the BS drama.  It lasted two weeks and while the sex was amazing, the headache that came with dating a younger person was not worth the benefits.  Its not their fault, for the most part we were all like that when we were that age.  Between 16-19 and again from 19-21 are the two biggest changes in your life.  I went through it myself, I have watched younger friends go through it, its just a fact.  The first jump you start to form an identity and the second you gain individuality.  While I personally do not want to deal with people going through these changes, I could tolerate their presence on the grid if the laws were different in this country.  Unfortunately, the laws are what they are and as its been said in the 100 posts above this one; this is a freakin liability to all adults.

Just leave them in the playpen till their overprotective, fundamentalist parents pull their heads out of their own backsides and realize the world is not the same one as they grew up in 50 years before.  Ya it sucks to be a teen, but it sucked for us when we were a teen and when you teens eventually come full circle and have children of your own, it will suck for them when they become teens.  Cest La Vie.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

A 13yr old in RL looks 13yrs old.  A 13yr old in SL can look like anyone at any age.  By not having teens on the adult grid, even if someone looked like child AV's you knew they were an adult.  Now you just don't know.  There needs to be a way to tell whether someone is over 18 or under 18, simple as that.  I am not going to TP every person who IM's me to an adult zone just to see if they are really an adult.

 

And to the person who says "don't hook up with people in PG zones" it has nothing to do with that at all.  I am not worried about hooking up with a kid, I am worried about getting an IM, not knowing they are a kid, and talking with them like they are an adult.  This includes cursing and talking about adult stuff. I personally don't consider a 16yr old a kid, but the law does.  Again, this has nothing to do with sex.

 

As I said, in RL you can look around to see if there is a kid standing there before you curse or make an adult comment.  With kids on the SL grid you can't do that because people make their own AV however they want.  If they are going to go through with this they need to make an option to tag Teen AV's with a red glow or something very obvious, other then just a note in a profile, which as of now we don't even have that!  Also teen's IM's shoult be tagged with a big blinking "I'm a Teen".  I don't care if it paints a target on them for the kid-touchers.  Not my problem.  It DOES protect me from saying something I shouldn't because now I know they are kids.

 

One of my fav sims is PG not because its a family friendly place, in  fact its a bar/club that plays classic rock.  They keep it PG to keep  out the naked people.  You can swear as long as its not every other word  and they have no problem with adult conversation like "going to get  another drink, getting wasted tonight!"  Just because a sim is PG does  not make it kid friendly.

Perfect example.  Walk into any college classroom and you would consider it a PG setting right?  That does not mean that topics being talked about in that classroom are kid friendly.

Its not about sex, I don't go whore myself out to everyone on the grid, hooking up in public places.  Its about being able to relax knowing everyone on SL is at least 18+ so you don't have to watch every thing you say.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

@ Boaz Sands

Thank you.  Exactly.  Does anyone think LL is actually going to protect the adults here from legal troubles?  If something happens on your PG sim they will throw you under the bus faster then you can blink.  Its been LL's policy all along and its not going to change.  By doing this they are opening up every adult to the possibility of legal issues and saving themselves the cost of having to run two different grids.  LL will practice CYA and dodge any legal issues.  What they are doing is throwing it on the residents, making their decision to do this our problem.

 

All I here above is we need safeguards to protect the children, how about some safeguards to protect the adults from the children or the children's parents?  You turn on the news and every day its more nonsense.  A teacher accused of being incorporated with a child, come to find out he told them to go change because their skirt was too short and causing a disruption.  The parents respond with police complaint saying the teacher had to have been looking at their girl to know her skirt was too short and to think that had to be a pervert.  Even if the teacher wins, his life is ruined all because a parent let their kid out of the house dressed like a whore and couldn't handle being told the truth.  This happens every day.  Every day another news story.  I am just sick of it and don't want SL to turn into a place where people have to worry about who is around when they type in chat, etc.  Unneeded stress.

/Exit conversation.  I have said everything I have need to say, besides nothing is going to stop this from happening.  As the guy stated above, if you are a pg sim owner you might want to bump that up to moderate to protect yourself legally.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

If Sony did not remove Other Os from the PS3 (and I refused to update to loose that feature) I would log into PS3 Home tonight and take screen shots.  You might understand why I hate little kids.  Nothing but harassment from little boys looking for photos or to cyber.  Its out of control.  For those who think SL is bad when it comes to sleazebags, this is NOTHING compared to how it could be if they let kids onto an adult grid.

 

Understand I do not consider a 17 yr old a brat/gremlin but a 13 year old is a problem.  I don't care if they are restricted, its still a problem.  Do you think when you enter a sim, there is going to be a big red flag that comes up "warning children's event" or anything of that nature?  How do I know someone is a kid, do I have to look at every AV's profile in a 3k radius around me?  As of now you still cant tell who is age verified and who isn't in most areas of the grid.

 

Its really not the kids I am worried about, I can deal with them to a point and can TP to an adult zone to avoid them.  Its their parents.  Its a risk i don't want to take.

 

Why should any of us have to worry about this?  We log in now and don't think about interacting with kids because they cant be on the main server.  Sure, there has to be a few under 18'ers out there who lied but because they are not suppose to be there they seem to keep themselves in line.  Its like an under 21 at a bar, they don't want to stick out.

 

I know it seems like I hate kids, hell i said that in a few posts above.  Really, its not all kids, some are quite mature and intelligent.  The problem is they are a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.  Is the reward of more people on the grid to interact with worth a bunch of horny little boys and zealot parents?  Is it worth the FBI showing up at your door because you made an off the cuff sexual comment that 99% of adults would consider nothing, but that 1% says is corrupting their children?

 

If the law was not such a mess right now when it comes to online interactions, and if someone could guarantee that linden lab would take full responsibility for any legal action involving an adult who was wrongfully accused of inappropriate action with a kid on SL, then fine let them on.  But they will never do that because they know like the rest of us, this is one giant mess waiting to happen.

 

I wish the world was not like this, I agree with you.  In most places around the world 16 is an adult and I 100% support that philosophy.  But I am not risking my life over hanging out with a 16 yr old online.  Remember till about 100 years ago, a kid became an adult at thirteen.  People were married at that age.  Its modern society that can't figure out what age kids should be adults.  I have no problem interacting with a 16 yr old if they are mature.  The problem is that some members of our society think this should not happen, and its those members that can ruin all of our lives.  Cone on, everyone here knows this is a bad idea.  Its a problem waiting to happen.

I am trying to mitigate risk.  If you go to a bar, you figure the person you are talking with is over 21 or at close to that age.  As of now we know that anyone on the adult grid is over 18 or lied in which case we should be covered.  I like knowing when I go into a bar people there are adults, just like I like logging into SL and knowing I am on an adult grid.  If everyone has a problem with this then help by voting the legal age of an adult to 16 in the USA like the rest of the world.  Problem solved.  But I can see it now... there is a parent reading this saying "protect the children" and you are the ones I am worried about.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

I agree, as a single adult I do NOT want kids on SL.  It should be 18+ IMO.  Its bad enough I have to game with them on Xbox 360 & PS3, now they are moving to the adult server in SL?  Bad idea.

 

This is a legal liability for everyone; have you been paying  attention to the news?  We live in a police state where you can be  arrested for anything w/o just cause.  The guy making coffee naked in  his own house, who was arrested when a cops wife trespassed on his land  and looked in his window?  The teen girl who was arrested and is now a  registered sex offender because she sent photos of her own body to her  boyfriend?  Fundamentalist delusional parents who do not properly raise  their children and then blame society for their own parenting downfalls  is spreading like a plague.  Last year a married couple who made p0rn  for a living went to jail for a year because the government said their  p0rn was not tasteful enough for American society as it "simulated"  rape.  Things are getting out of control and the last thing adult second  life users need is to worry that some parent is going to get the feds  involved because their kid decided to interact with legal adults  online.  Things like that will ruin people lives.  We are living in a  really bad time for this to happen, and its only going to get worse.

 

Personally I don't care what p0rn your kid looks at, I don't care what violent video game they play, if you are a parent and you don't think your kid is into some sort of sex, drinking, drugs, etc you are probably delusional.  With that said, its not my place to babysit your children.  I was not the one who made a mistake and had kids; I'm smart and take precautions.  SL is a virtual world and is an amazing escape from the mundane RL.  Its bad enough that society feels like its everyone responsibility to raise each others children.

Its bad enough that I have to deal with these fundamentalists telling me what is and is not appropriate to watch on TV or what websites I should or should not view.  I don't give a crap about your kids virtues; keep them out of my way.  Don't tell me how to live my life.  I am an adult and you have no right to tell me how to live my life and what content I should view.  We all know though, the news will catch wind of this and say that kids are being exposed to adult stuff, which will be the end of adult SL.

 

Lastly, because LL seems to ignore the community,   if they are going to merge these under age gremlins with the rest of the adult SL community, we NEED to have some sort of notification in our profiles that we are age verified and 18+.  As of now it just says payment on file and resident, but it does not tell you if someone is over 18.  I would love to see in the same profile area as the information above a line added for those who are age verified adults in red text, or something that no one can miss when looking at a profile.  While its not better then keeping your little indigent children out of our sandbox, at least we will be able to tell them from the adults.

I am not going to welcome teens to the grid; I am going to ignore them.  I have seen what PS3 Home is like with little kids.  Its another virtual world run by Sony on the PS3.  They thought it was a good idea to mix kids and adults in a PG setting.  Its nothing but little boys sexually harassing every female AV they see on the screen.  Its brutal.  You can't go 5 minutes with out getting spammed by these little boys.  Worse, they don't take no for an answer.  I brought six people over from another virtual world to SL so we could escape the little brat kids, now you decide to drop them off at our doorstep for us to babysit?  Not acceptable.

Keep kids off of the adult second life grid.

[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

No, I wont because of fundamentalist parents.  You know the definition of impairing the morals of a minor?  If i accidentally swear in front of them that can be considered a crime.  If they bring up a topic that has some sort of sexual overtone even if its not directly about sex, that can be a crime.  I have LE in the family and see what goes on in this country.  I hear it all the time how parents are trying to get adults arrested for anything.  All you have to do is accuse someone of something, no proof needed.  A life is ruined.

When our government forms an anit-p0rn squad, you know its the beginning of the end.  Google FBI Anti-Porn.  I am not talking about kid-touchier p0rn too; just regular adult porn.  Like i stated in my post above a married couple having consensual sex were charged and served a year in jail for simulating rape with each other.  Its out of control.

All I have to do is say you interacted with my child in a way I do not think is appropriate and its all over.  Even if you win in court, its going to cost you a lot of money and ruin your life.  People will never look at you the same again because in the back of their mind they will always be that question.

It should not be this way; our society has gone crazy.  I agree with you that things should be different, but at this point as I approach 32, I am not about to have my life ruined because of some crazy whack job parent.

I don't know where you live, but here in New England, especially in some of the places that have a lot of money, parents will press charges for even looking in the direction of their kid.  Again, its not right but because people refuse to stand up for what is right and stop the nonsense in this country, its what we have to deal with.