DISQUS

Alex Harbinger · 2 years ago

As an active member of the Teen Grid, and a full supporter of the Unification, I believe this is within Second Life's grasp.

The problem of grooming has been brought up countless many times since the idea was first proposed.

Here's an excerpt from an E-mail:

"As a small, yet fun test, I created a 'PG and Profanity' filter for local
chat. The filter would pick up certain words when they were said, such as
profane words, or sexually explicit words. Within just a few days, my
filter had picked up hundreds of violations, and with each, spewed out a
simple 'Don't use profanity' or 'You are in a PG-sim. Don't use sexually
explicit themes', et cetera.

My point being that the Teen Grid is far from 'dandy'. In fact, I believe
Teens are at a much higher risk on the Teen Grid then if the teens were
able to venture to the Main Grid.

An adult, a pedophile - for the sake of arguments, lets make this person a
male. This adult decides he wants to 'attack some teens', so he makes a
Teen Grid account. Fact - Teens are more likely to have open contact with
their peers. The adult would be most quickly accepted as 'part of the
group' under a Teen alias then had the adult tried to same thing on the
Main Grid if teens were present there. The teens would most likely
instantly report a 'freaky old guy hitting on' them then 'a possibly cute
boy from So-Cal'.

While it may seem Teens will be at a higher risk on the Main Grid, it is
in fact the opposite. Teens don't have any walls up, they're vulnerable on
the Teen Grid; Teens are still at a stage where they may trust their peers
pretty easily."

Thanks,
Alex Harbinger

[http://www.alexharbinger.com for the full Proposal]