[Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid]

I'm glad the teens are coming ... it makes some sense to have us all part of the same grid, but as some have noted here, there are serious issues that need to be addressed before kids and adults mix. I'm really worried that adults and Linden Lab may find themselves the target of aggressive prosecution as soon as some kid decides to pretend he or she is over eighteen.

You have issues with racy profiles, mature land bordering general, adults who don't want to interact with kids, and the ease with which adult materials and discussions can be shared with teens. At the very least, we're going to need a profile flag that identifies whether a user is 18 or older.

Can teens join any group? "My precious little Cindy joined a BDSM demon cult, you child-exploiting Lindens -- my lawyer and local prosecutor are coming for you!" True, the limits as designed should weed out most kids under 16, but I bet a few will slip through and all you need is one precocious 13 year old to ruin your day and your clean criminal record.

You're lucky that most of the civilized world considers 16 to be over the age of consent, but in the U.S., it's often 18, and I'm seriously worried you're opening yourself and your frisky adult citizens to potential corruption of minor charges.

Do this, but please do it right. I don't want Cindy's dad knocking on my door carrying a baseball bat.

[Help Us Test the SL Web Viewer Beta]

Attempted to log in with Firefox 3.6.12 under 64-bit Linux (Ubuntu 10.04). I got the flashy intro, the invitation to explore, and the Gaikai background with four pulsing white squares in the center, but after a minute, the background closed and I was presented with a "Leaving so soon?" page. I tried this ten times, using two different e-mail accounts, but never saw a single rendered view in-world.

I like the concept and hope you can get this working reliably for users on all platforms. This will make a great, lightweight introduction to SL for new users.

[Mesh Import Open Beta Starts Today]

Is there a reason we're back to that silly Terms of Service bug that won't let you agree to terms because it never loads them again? Is anyone else having this trouble? Is there a work-around?

64-bit Ubuntu Linux 10.04

[[GUIDE] What's a skybox?]

 

Don't get too excited about that Cornell Box, Adeon ... it'd be a simple matter to apply pre-rendered textures that simulate the correct lighting. But my eyebrows shot up the moment he rezzed that, too.