Director of Oscar winning Movie uses Child avatars in new SL Machinima!

from new world notes "This is the trailer to 'Dear My Father', an SL machinima currently in development, scheduled for a Summer release. (Warning: contains some brief sexual imagery.) It's the work of Japanese filmmaker Hidetaka Nagahama (known in Second Life as Sela Boa), who was also Assistant Director of Departures, which won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film."

It looks to be a film with some hard themes especially for some of our community members. What strikes me is the way the director has used slightly cartoonish backgrounds to make his main characters stand out. Looks very kool.

A rough translation of the video's dialog/captions "The boy loved his father... The boy didn't love his father.... The memory of father in his boyhood.... Of himself in his boyhood... His memories were different from others... But his memories were same as others. Dear My Father. 2009 Summer. Coming soon."

Secondyouth.net - Second Childhood Website

To coincide with the Second Childhood Network, we have released a website that gives outsiders a little info on our community, places and how to join. The website offers to guide you through joining the virtual worlds and to arrive directly at a Learning Tree where you quickly become a child avatar and join a group.

if you ever visit the learning trees and see a new person there, please give a helping :)

Visit the Website HERE

Second Childhood Network

This week saw the release of the Second Childhood Network. The Network is a collection of 24 most popular kid places in SL connected via a Visual HUB that lets you travel from place to place.

"it's a way to see our community as a whole, many of us are unaware of the many places available to our community"

here is a video created to help explain the Second Childhood Network and show how to use it.



The HUBS are available at all 24 locations on the network. It is hoped that this will encourage members of the child avatar community and normal SL residents to travel and explore the whole circle of places.

How Dangerous is the Internet to REAL kids? - Growing Up Online

Today i stumbled across an article by David Pogue for the New York Times which examines closely the question of internet safety. He makes reference to a PBS Frontline documentary film which is certainly worth watching and is in SEVEN parts, each 8 minutes in length exploring many aspects from over protective mothers, to cyber bullying.

“One of the biggest surprises in making this film was the discovery that the threat of online predators is misunderstood and overblown. The data shows that giving out personal information over the Internet makes absolutely no difference when it comes to a child’s vulnerability to predation.” (That one blew my mind, because every single Internet-safety Web site and pamphlet hammers repeatedly on this point: never, ever give out your personal information online.)

“Also, the vast majority of kids who do end up having contact with a stranger they meet over the Internet are seeking out that contact,” Ms. Dretzin goes on. “Most importantly, all the kids we met, without exception, told us the same thing: They would never dream of meeting someone in person they’d met online.”

Several teenagers interviewed in the story make it clear that only an idiot would be lured unwittingly into a relationship with an online sicko: “If someone asks me where I live, I’ll delete the ‘friend.’ I mean, why do you want to know where I live at?” says one girl.

[From How Dangerous Is the Internet for Children? - Pogue’s Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog]

View the very good VIDEO here

Is a teen invasion looming?

Well, so how many of you out there heard Philip Linden's interview, when he talked about the future of the Teen Grid? To say it came as a suprise to me is an understatement, as I can see the potential for all sorts of problems for LL, though probably less for us as a community (that's all of us, not just the kid AV community!).

How would it affect us specifically? Not really sure it would, as I still can't see teens (and the way PL was speaking, it may not be limited to just teens...) playing kid AVs. Certainly as a teen myself, I would have played a heroic adult AV, ready to save the world from all dangers! PL spoke of parents not being able to join their children in-world, I have a feeling the parents might be a bit stunned by the choice of Av their kids want to play...

I would be quite worried if I was playing an adult AV, because I would never know if that rather stunning person I just met, with the wonderful eyes and a body to kill for was actually under age in rl. It could get some people in big trouble very quickly.

But the last thing a teen would want to do would be to hang around with a bunch of kids, they can do that every day of their rls. SL is a place where we can explore life in ways we are not able to in rl, why would anyone want to do the same things they are able to do in rl?

So I think our world is quite safe, though we may be in for an interesting time over the next few months or a year. What do you think?

Tepic

Where to start?

Well, on the surface, it all seems a bit quiet after Christmas and the New Year, but all sorts of things seem to be happening!

My last post has had two comments, both from people I hadn't met, which was nice. I've since met one of them, and am in the process of talking to the other - looks like my Christmas wish for new friends has started to have an effect :-) One of the comments was a plea for help in starting up in SL, and this is something I have noticed in the past few months. It is apparently easier to jump straight in and start exploring than before, but this leaves many newcomers without a basic understanding of our world and how it works. Thankfully, this new friend has already found the SLC, and I am sure that this will be the best start possible! The potential for possible new friends being disenchanted before becoming fully conversant with how things works may be increasing, so remember back to your starting days, and offer help and a kind word to them.

Oh! Yes... about a week ago, one of our members found they had been ejected and banned from a sim run by a group offering help to new people. This was all sorted out quite quickly with the people who own the sim, and it was an error by a relativly new person who had mis-interperated the "mature" setting on the land as meaning kid AVs were not allowed! But, what was impressive was the speed with which the kids community got together and arrived at the sim in support of our friend, and the swiftness with which negotiations and and understanding were arrived at with the sim owners. It could have so easily have degenerated into a free-for-all, with all of us losing out, but in the end, through group action and calm leadership, we were able to resolve the situation to everyone's gain. Errrr...... actually, I had drifted off to sleep just as things were getting underway, and didn't wake up till it was all sorted out... but the reports I heard were very encoraging!

So, what have I been up to? Well, after chatting with some friends, I realised that fire precautions in the kids community were rather sketchy, so I designed a fire hydrant for use in strategic locations.....

I've also attended a couple of decent events that are a result of the change to Homestead land, the party at Goony Island was a terrific way of seeing in the 20 AV restriction, and a wonderful example of creative, cross-sim boarder anarchy! Long live the revolution! Also, the Him & I & Us let their second island go, as it would no longer be able to support the activities we had been enjoying there under the new restrictions. The final bike race was fantastic, around the whole island, up hills, down dales, over bridges - a triumph of planning and organisation. Hopefully, such events will still be able to take place, as they have really enriched our community.

There have been Rez-Day parties, far too many to attend all of them, also big partnership ceremonies and parties, in fact, it seems there are even more things going on, on an individual level, than ever before. Looks like a great year folks - that is if the numbers of AVs logged in does'nt snap the elastic band!

Have Fun

Tepic

Have I been Naughty or Nice?

Well, looking around sl, I guess Christmas time is here again (except is some strange areas where Winterfest is here...). The snow is thick and falling everywhere, with appreciably less lag than I remember from last year - can you remember watching the snowflakes fall sooo slowly you could dodge between them... errr... if you could move!

I've visited lots of great winter builds, Goony Island being one of my favorites, if for no other reason than the presence of Egnog the Troll! The Him & I & Us Commune has turned it's main square into a winter wonderland, Aspen of course looks lovely, the Scout Camp has frozen over, in fact, the whole place is fantastic!

I've also visited several Santa's Grottos, and to be honest, I'm not quite sure where they were, as I had the message that Santa was there, tped in, saw the great man, looked round and headed off! I will be trying to visit as many Santas as possible over the next week - Santas need our support, and the places taking the trouble and effort to set things like this up deserve to have people visit.

The reaction when I tell people I am visiting as many Santas as possible has been mixed, though the usual question is "Why?". Well, I enjoy Christmas, and when I was growing up, I was more likely to be one of Santa's Helpers than one of the children lucky enough to visit him. Now, I can be the one doing the visiting, and enjoying the magic, even though the beard may be false, standing in line, waiting to be called up for my turn - it all feels so warm and comforting.

Most of the Santas have presents to give, which is nice though I have all that I really need or will use. There always comes a point where I am asked what I would like for Christmas, and the answer has to be, for Christmas, nothing really, but for the coming year I would like to meet new friends, and deepen the friendships I have in sl. I can think of nothing that could possibly be a greater gift than my friends here.

I will continue to visit more Santas (I also try to play them a carol on my flute, in sims that allow that), and I will enjoy every experience. As to the title question, have I been naughty or nice? Well, I think that's for the people around me to decide, not me!

Happy Christmas!

Viva la Revolution!

Well, what an interesting day yesterday was!

I logged on, to be greeted with several messages about the price increases in tier fees for Openspace SIMs, and headed over to one of the protest locations to see what was going on.

When I arrived, I met Loki and Myrtil, along with several other kid AVs and a HUGE number of other people, all talking and discussing the increases.

So what is it all about, and how does it affect us, your average (who, us lot? heheh) kid AV?

Well...... from my research, seems Openspace SIMs were originally designed for open spaces, water, forest and such, and had a limit of 1875 prims. To be honest, they were not that attractive, quite highly priced, took ages to deliver, and apart from scenery, not much use for anything. Then the price dropped dramatically, the number of prims increased to 3750, and they were delivered almost immediately. It was also possible to buy them (you had to own a full SIM), then pass ownership to someone else!

Overnight, they became very popular, and the areas we had to explore expanded wonderfully! Often they have been used as residential SIMs, with lots of space and not many prims.

Places like Goony Island, which was in danger of vanishing, found a new and affordable place on an Openspace SIM, keeping a wonderful place for anyone to explore. Many of our friends now live on Openspace SIMs, where, for a modest rental, they have space to live and play. New sailing, flying and frankly wonderful builds were made available for us to use, because residents could afford to have a SIM that they could leave mostly as open area.

Unfortunately, it seems some people decided they could be used for heavy use, such as clubs, and, an Openspace SIM being used heavily affects the performance of the other Openspace SIMs using the same processor.

This has lead to complaints by residents, and Linden Labs have decided that the solution is to raise tier prices by 67% from January (on existing and new Openspace SIMs), and to increase the initial set-up fee by a similar percentage.

To be honest, I can't see how that will actually help, and from what I have read on the blogs, neither can a lot of people. What it effectively means for us as kid AVs is that, with people no longer able to afford the tier, many of the places we have learnt to love and explore over the past few months will vanish. My feeling is that without these places, with sl a poorer environment for new people, we will see less staying and contributing to our communities.

This is a sad situation, and I hope that Linden Labs will reconsider, or we will all end up the poorer for it.

There is a JIRA on this issue at https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1776, and you can follow the forum discussion at http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=289652&page=1&pp=15 - have a look at what is being said and discussed.

In friendship

Tepic

SLC get a mention on the BurninLife.com blog

Thanx to all those that Turned up at the Hay Barn on open day. The massive turn out impressed one journalist who writes ongoing reviews about The Burning Life festival.

He was so Impressed with the way our community comes together he awarded the Hay Barn a Sizzle Award.

Head over to the burninglife.com blog to read his words of praise.

We should be proud

I'm a regular in the SL Forums, and one of the big topics? Us.

Now we've long been debated there. A year or so ago, when they still had the general forum, most comments about us kids were pretty negative. They were particularly bad in the wake of the Report Mainz and Sky News pieces of 2006. That isn't what these discussions are about. No, they're my photo display, the SLC's "Childhood Dreams" walk through storybook, and especially about Kids5B.

One person visited these with his 60 year old father. The latter now has an SL account just because of what he saw from us.

Another person compared Kids5B to visiting Walt Disney World.

Tons of adults have been "transmogrified," and loved every minute of it.

I've had to give out SLURLs several times in the forums and elsehwere to people eager to see what seem to be some of the biggest parts of SL's fifth birthday. SL5B Move - the home of the SLC build, the Kids5B build, my exhibit, and the BSSL's Camp Duck Itch - is one of the most popular sims there. Kids5B will be known as a legandary SL site by those who visited.

Remember, it was only a month ago that we were "respectfully declined." In that time we changed policy, we built showcases worthy of our community, and we put together two simply awesome regions at Kids5B.

We've changed the entire dialogue about child avatars, and changed minds from all over.

Today, we should be proud of all we've done in a very short period of time. Congratulations to us all, and let's keep the momentum rolling!

Child Avatars RULE, back in SL5B

OK the news has been out a while now, but i thought i better post it here also. Linden Lab have restarted their Submission Form, only this time allowing Child Avatars to build exhibits and represent our community. Already Me (Loki) Marianne, Geoff and others have had applications approved, all Linden Lab want is for us to be sensible in what we build. It seems strange and wonder why they reacted like they did to start with. We no more want anyone to see us in a bad light than LL do.

Anyway so now after all the drama the Child Avatar community will have a big presence at SL5B. Not only that but there will be Landmarks to the Kid5B event which is growing bigger and bigger.

There are casualties from the protesting and campaigning. Signpostmarv Martin and his team were managing this event to start with, while it was still a resident run celebration. They stood down in protest of the ethics involved and i dont think their hard work and sacrifice should be forgotton!

Anyway, all the Grids eyes are on us now!!

Still more...

Robin Linden has indicated that child avatars are allowed and welcome as attendees - this is simply affecting whether child avatars can be contributors.

More on SL5B

If you have not yet, read Loki's post below, first. Dun worry, I'll wait right here.

First off, we're NOT happy with this. Loki and I are not happy, and the Linden who had to deliver the news is not happy. This decision was made thanks to people like United States Representative Mark Kirk who are on a misguided quest to keep real life kids off an adult only service by penalizing a company already making steps to keep real life kids off the system. Heck, I bet that Kirk's concern has more to do with gathering votes from his conservative base than it does about actually worrying about any child.

There are some elements within LL that are panicking. As a result, many last minute changes are going on with the SL birthday celebration. It's being all made PG (no mature sims or builds), Linden Lab is taking a direct hand in the approval of content (they've been far more standoffish about this in the past), and yes... they're being overly cautious about representations of child avatars.

What does this mean? For one, the planned SLC build and others (including a presentation I had planned of my inworld photography) that are specifically about kids in Second Life are not going to happen. Ironically another build that will include kids will, but because it uses a literary reference to get around the fact. And while we are having the Linden who contacted us do some follow-up on specifics (including, as Loki referenced below, the very basic issue of access), this is the extent of things. Really.

It is about a disallowance of certain forms of builds within the birthday area, on the grounds that their inclusion might give the erroneous appearance of Linden Lab condone said activities, including a misguided assumption that kids = teh sex0r. As we all know, people like Sky News don't need reality to spin a story -- and this is right at the heart of things.

I should also add that the Linden who provided the news is not our enemy. Frankly, I feel sorry for her being stuck in the position of presenting news that she, herself, is opposed to. Her preference is to have us included, and is even willing to do what she can if we want to have something -- provided it can make its way past what would likely be a very severe vetting process.

I am wary of bending too far backwards on any such build, though, given that this could set a precedent. I don't want us to be "separate but equal," pushed into the closet when convenient. Frankly, that serves no one's interests, and will only highlight some of the very issues LL wishes to prevent.

At the same time, how far do we push back? SL is Linden Lab's place, and while it is a place of "your world, your imagination," they nevertheless own this particular sandbox. They're fear is that people like Rep. Kirk and Jason Ferrel are just itching for more grist, and this will destroy LL's chances to grow beyond what it is now.

So what now?

For one, I want to hear your input. Leave comments here or contact us. Let us know how we should proceed. What should our group do? What should those of us put in leadership positions do? What should we expect and ask for from Linden Lab?

Also, I want us as a whole to keep a clear head. Let's get more answers, let's figure out our best course of action, and then let's proceed. Panic will serve no one well (after all, one could argue that it's panic that had led us to where we are right now).

Most of all, let's be there for each other right now. We've beaten the impossible before, and we will do it again -- we will see a time when us kids will prevail.

Mari

Child Avatars Not Welcome at SL5B

Last night I and Marianne McCann met with a the Linden assigned to the organising of Second Lifes 5th Birthday celebration (SL5B). Some of you are old enough to remember our community last year showcased itself with camp duck itch and the Giant SLC Sand Castle.

This year we have unfortunitly been told we will not be allowed to represent or promote our community at SL5B. From what we could understand the reason being that Linden Lab (LL) do not want the world to see our community being sponsored by them in the current climate of hysteria created by a certain US politician. This MAY also mean that Child Avatars will NOT be allowed at the SL5B celebrations.

While shocked and disappointed that LL have decided to exclude us from such a celebration of everything in SL, I ask everyone in the Child Avatar community to stay strong and to not seek retribution. I reluctantly acknowledge that LL want us to lay low until the smoke of Real World Politics blows over or risk the entire world of Second Life being torn down by uneducated Politicians seeking fame and glory.

I say reluctantly because we have tried so hard to be recognised as a respectable important group of imaginative, talented and caring people. Being asked to go underground works against our already tarnished image. Anyone who hears of the drama of SL5B will wonder what we do that causes LL to fear being associated with us.

Ive heard of people deleting their child avatar accounts because they can not cope with the prejudice against them from other residents and even SL Mentors. I am TELLING YOU that we will get through this as long as we stick together. We have a great collection of Sims devoted to our community with great owners who will look after us.

And we WILL continue to have adventures in SL!