My Teen Grid Theory…

I have speculated about this idea before in IM’s and general conversation and after hearing about the Adult Verification scheme mentioned once again at SLCC I had the theory pop into my head.

I consider Mature content to be accessible to people who are 16 years old or more. Where as content that is Adult to be 18 years old or more. Therefore PG which does stand for Parental Guidance to be all content that can be deemed appropriate to anybody under 18 as long as a parent approves of it.

How does this relate to teens coming onto the grid? Well as we all know the main grid has currently got two types of sims. Mature and PG. PG seems to be maintained as a clean area where no swearing / sex / mature and adult acts happen. But in a world that is mature in nature and requires the user to be older than 18 (although we all know that can be easily bypassed) seems to be a little farfetched to me.

Now Teen Grid users want to merge with the main grid in the PG zones for a simple reason. Friends that get elevated when they reach the Main Grid at the age of 18 are lost and the only means of contact is through out-world clients such as Windows Live Messenger or Skype. Why must it be that way? We already are sharing a grid together which is just blocked out by Linden Lab. It would not take much to set this sort of system in.

Now I know that Linden Lab is working on stabalising the grid and this probably is low priority, but if teenagers know this and know they can get a bulk of Second Life while missing the sex world of Second Life it may stop the teenagers coming onto the Main Grid in a way that could lead to problems in Linden Labs future.

So the system i think Linden Lab should and perhaps may implement is this :

  1. Teenagers who are 15 and under will be able to access the Main Grid’s PG Sim’s and transfer any currently existing sims in the Teen Grid over to the Main Grid on a new continent
  2. Teenagers who are 16-17 will gain higher rights and get access to Mature sims that are free from sims which contain adult acts such as sex clubs and brothels
  3. When teenagers reach 18 they can access all content provided they verify their adult age

Now along with this move they can offer to teenagers who are in the main grid to retain their inventory pending inspection of objects in which all items relating to sex will be removed from inventory.

However the risk of adult objects being transferred into Mature regions will have to be policed which could be solved by a flag feature which builders can tag as only being used in certain regions. Along with this feature objects can be flagged by users if they are inappropriate or break terms of service. That could lead into reporting Casino games that are not allowed by the rules of the Terms of Service.

Yes I know this is a crazy and probably impossible in many of the ideas but some aspects I feel are possible. Again this is a theory and may have no credibility at all or ever will.

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