The idea that Phillip brought up about merging the Teen and Main grid has been bantered about all over the blogosphere.  While I can appreciate both sides of the argument I think attempting this with the issues LL currently has is a mistake.

There is no doubt I’ve met some talented and very mature minors on the main grid.  I’m sure there are far more out there than I know about.  They are smart and creative and savvy enough to not broadcast their age.  They are breaking the rules yes but kudos to them for trying something.

There are 2 sides to every argument of course.  Those who support letting all the kids in to the main grid and those who don’t.  I doubt anyone is suggesting just throwing the doors open and letting anyone thru without some form of verification that you are who you say you are.  This is where some people lose me.  You are signing up for SecondLife, many have blogs, many have even referred to their RL in those blogs.  Why are you so against some sort of verification that you are who you say you are when you enter sl?  No one is entirely anonymous on the internet.  An enterprising 13yr old could hack your website, find your bank account and buyout the video store before you even notice.  I realize that’s an exaggeration but you get my point.

Now granted, some worry about handing out personal details.  Fair enough.  Look at it from a different view though.  By verifying you are protecting yourself.  Your saying, "yep, this is who I am" to LL.  Now it’s up to LL to protect that information by not sharing it, letting it get "lost" or stolen.  Perhaps I’m being nieve but at some point you’ve got to trust a system to work as it’s intended.  So, I age verified, it took 5 mins.  I have payment info on file, it took 5 mins.  LL knows who I am and so does everyone else in SL that I’ve chosen to tell.  I make no secret of it, I just *choose* who I tell.

What does all that have to do with merging the 2 grids?  It’s one of the things LL will have to do if they want teens and adults to co-exist openly.  I don’t want to have to alter what I do in SL because a kid may be on the sim.  Not when my sim is set to mature.  I don’t want to have to tell the residents of my island what they can or can’t do on their property because a kid may show up at the mall in the middle of the sim.

By the same token I’d expect there to be some strong rules about behaviour in kid friendly areas.  I’ve no problem following the rules in such an area if I can set my own on my sim.

I’ve long since thought that parents should be able to spend time with their kids in SL.  Maybe that’s the place to start integrating.  Set up a "family" area.  See how it works.  Allow family members to bring people in if they want to.  It could be a great thing.

It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.  As Blue said in the concierge chat last night they’ve wanted to do this for 2 years.  I’ll reserve judgement for now and wait to see what happens.

Tags: main grid, second life, sl, teen grid