Thus opens the flood gates of a mud puddle. (o.o)

Some time between 11:30am and 12pm SLT(PST) today, the Second Life ToS update was released. Being… well… Myself, I read the bloody thing. At the same time, I was sending out notices to some inworld groups. I’m sure this Saturday’s Q&A is gonna be fun, indeed. =^-^=

So, basically, what happened? (O.o)

In the beginning, there was Second Life, and it was go… Naw, it sucked. Graphics were wonky, the client flipped out all the time, and challenging the physics engine in any way was almost a surefire way to crash a sim. (=_=)

Hang on… That wasn’t where I was going with this! (>_<) Okay... Like, SL started all up as a Virtual World [cue fanfare] service and very quickly became people's virtual sex dens. It's easy to blame Hentai fans for the growth in pixel-sex, but, naw... I'm gonna blame the lab for now. I'm just in that kinda mood. (^_^) Anyway... It surely wasn't a safe place for kids. So, yeah, as long as I remember it's been an 18 and over service. (^_^) Not quite sure when it happened, but, LL did piece together a teen grid. It was basically a different portion of the grid with specific land/avatar flags set so that nothing could cross over. Behind the scenes, there was only one grid. Out here where us peoples is at, there was two... Teen and Main. We couldn't reach them and they couldn't reach us. (^_^) Well, kinda. There was always the kid that lied about their age to get in the main grid and I'm bloody well sure that Uncle Lumpylap posed as a 14yo to become "good friends" with the lil'uns over there. (O.o) Well... The liars are still in their place, but, come the time the labbies throw the switch, the new rules will be... Put as simply as possible... 13-15 will have access to sponsored estates and only those estates... 16-17 will have access to all of the General(PG) sims... And adults will have access to the 16-17 year ol.... Ohmigod... (O_O) See... There's the rub. (>_<) Okay... Nearly everyone around seems to be all worried about access to content. "Teens will not have access to Moderate(Mature) and Adult sims", "Teens won't be exposed to adult content", and so and so and so forth. (=_=) But, yeah, so? Honestly... I don't care. Kids been sneaking into daddy's porn stash since the dawn of morality. Kids gonna see teh pixxl sehks. Nuuuu! Sh'right. They just spent an hour lurking RedTube before logging into SL. You ain't add'n anything to their repertoire. (=_=) But... Now that they're sharing space with adults... They're, uhm, sharing space with adults! Liek anon adults can IM the little scrubs now. Whoop-dee-poop, no? Uhm, yeah. (=_=) Okay, situation... Uncle Lumpylap... Wait, display names now... uncle.lumpylap gradually befriends lolita.freshcherry... They have some innocent fun. Prim Attack, boat rides, and sandbox projects fill their days. Eventually uncle starts drifting into getting more personal in IMs... I'll stop here... Ew. (>_<) Where's the protection? Sure, kids won't have access to adult content, but, adults will have access to kids. All they get is a page of "Safety Tips" which shows them how to mute and AR... Assuming they'll want to. (=_=) I foresee one of two situations coming. Situation 1: Things run like this, someone slips up and partners a teen, and the TV news swoops in. or 2: LL gets so tight and heavy handed with the General sim rules that an exposed belly button is reason enough for account termination. (._.) Yeah, I used extremes... But, is it that far off? I dunno... Time will tell. For now, I'll continue to be myself and see what comes of it. (^_^) Now, mind you, the quantity of teens coming over is pretty much a trickle compared to the overall population. So, it's sort of like opening the floodgates of a mud puddle. Odds are, I've met more teens in the past 3 years I've spent in SL than I'll see from now on. Still... That's one bloody toxic mud puddle. (>_<)