1. Do you not want to send your teens to summer camp? Do you not want to send your children to school? Granted the teen grid is used for teens to explore and enjoy Second Life in a controlled and monitored environment, but at the same time, what would the teen grid be without programs that enhance, facilitate, and encourage education, and educational development programs to teens? How is this even an issue?

Posted at 4:40PM on Dec 28th 2006 by Nexeus Fatale

2. Global Kids is definitely not for everybody -- teens resent those kind of happy little tree sort of programs that often seem content-free and more about gaining grants for the non-profit to maintain its existence.

GK is the only entity that has this right to go on the teen grid, and I have to say, quite a few parents of teens on the teengrid don't understand why THEY cannot go on there, even if only to teach their children and their children's friends on how to use SL itself.

The Global Kids approach is not one that works for everybody, and it can't be imposed. I have to chuckle over a campaign that tries to make kids aware of sex trafficking in the world as if this is some far-off remote problem in Thailand, when the real threat is much more likely that they will find themselves roped into a Gorean cult or some other authoritarian group trawling for members. Before they get all original about fighting evils in RL, they should look first online where the kids spend their time and deal with the actual inworld phenomena.

There's lots to be said about the TG, and the view of LL and GK is not at all the final word on it. It was plagued by all the same problems of the adult grid -- the teen FIC, the Lindens feting the teen FIC, etc. Wierdest of all, from my perspective, is the way both GK and LL competed with teens' OWN content (and please don't lecture me about how these entities facilitate content when the teens were creating their own games, malls, social activities, etc. without Lindens or GK).

They would then announce parties, events, contests, etc. on the grid or on the forums that would then draw the traffic away from the content teens themselves made.

Of course, we saw this on the adult grid too -- but it became especially frustrating to kids on the TG.

Ultimately, there's a vast fiction being perpetrated about the TG in the sense that the kids willing to obey the rules, the ones who have parental oversight of their Internet, are the ones on the TG. The ones without parental oversight who are breaking the rules are showing up as the unverified accounts on the adult grid. So we now have the unruly kids grid intertwined with the adult grid where unsuspecting adults have to deal mainly with griefing asstard kids. And the ruly kids are on the TG, yet unable to benefit from teaching by adults who are banned from their midst. OH well, so very SL...

Posted at 8:31PM on Dec 28th 2006 by Prokofy Neva

3. We should open up the main grid for everyone.. If I am correct you dont have a teen internet connection.. Its just there.. If you want to have a teen/adult/casino sim then you need to take care of it yourself.
We could however use some more tools for that..
But we all know there are already many many teens on the main grid and we all read the stories about the adults on the teen grid..

Open the gates!

Although: "My little daughter girl bought a 2000L$ skin, you need to refund us the money because she aint an adult!" or "My son bought a ##### at your ####### thats not legal!" and "My son lost 6k at your casino, we want that back!". I wonder if you would ever hear that visa versa: "My son won 6k, please can you take that back"...

hmmm a lot to think about..

Posted at 5:20AM on Dec 29th 2006 by aEoLuS

4. Thank you for contributing to this important conversation which we began on the MacArthur Spotlight blog. However, that is not a closed teen-only conversation. Please come post your own thoughts there as well:
http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/adults_role_online_teen_spaces/
Barry Joseph
Online Leadership Director
Global Kids

Posted at 10:44AM on Dec 29th 2006 by Barry Joseph

5. Teens and children should not be on the adult grid *period*. Unfortunately, the use of unverified accounts has meant that they are anyway, but at least the official ban means that SL doesn't have to be cleaned up and sanitized "For the Children!"

Adults also do not belong on the teen grid. I don't care what the group is, or whatever, they don't belong. How do you make sure that a pedophile isn't going to slip through? The only way to do that is to make sure that teens and LL employees are the *only* ones allowed there.

Posted at 10:46AM on Dec 29th 2006 by Jack Harker

6. Yes aEoLus, we do have a Teen Internet, it's called a content filter, and all Public Libraries and Public Schools must filter their Internet access to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

Just because people lie about their age and cross over to the other grids does not mean the grids should be merged.

Personally I think Linden Labs needs to license the software and allow people to host their own grids (everything from personal mini-grids to large corporate grids). This would allow people to do anything they wish, and to rate them as to content. This would allow school districts and others that use SL to "filter" access to appropriate grids for their students.

We don't teach BDSM in sex education, students should not be exposed to that on the adult grid as part of their education. There would be no K12 education projects if they had to use the main grid, School Boards would not allow it.

I think the main grid is a mess, it's obvious that all new ventures in SL that are of any seriousness are being started on islands (public and private). The next logical jump is to independent grids linked by a virtual DNS system. This will be the only way that SL can achieve any sort of growth beyond their resources.

Posted at 3:11AM on Dec 31st 2006 by Stan Trevena