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

Bunny Hop

Hi All!

Easter is almost here, and, as usual in sl, there are Easter Egg Hunts beginning! A friend mentioned on to me, and I have been following the links to see the places and find the eggs. This one is called the Bunny Hop (that might explain the people you see hopping around sl..... I do say MIGHT! heheheh), and covers a lot of different places, there being apparently over 160 different eggs to find.

The Bunny Hop HQ, aduchi momoyama (146, 189, 40) is where it all starts, with a notice and an example egg. Follow the directions the rabbits are taking the eggs, and you will soon find your first real egg, with a gift and the landmark to the next location.

It's not a quick race, some of the eggs are REALLY difficult to find (yes, I did follow the yells of "It's over here!" a couple of times...), others are in plain view. Take time to look round places and enjoy the exploration, it's well worth it. As in most such hunts, the eggs are placed by stores to get you to see their stuff, and there are some nice things out there! It's the different locations that are really fun though, the colourful, the strange, the downright weird (like the place covered in blood, and where i stood in something icky..... rather cool really...) and the truely beautiful like the place in the sky with transparent floors. I've put some pictures in to let you see.

So far I have found seven eggs, the next is proving difficult to find... but there are still loads for me to discover, and I am going to have fun doing so.... anyone want to join me?

Tepic

KIC Kids Info Center

Hello and welcome to the KIC, the Kids Info Center!

After 3 days of celebration is the KIC open for all Kids since March, 20th. If you need help, want to know more about being a SL Kid or just want to have fun or a Sandbox for building in a calm and safe environment, this place is for you. Just made from SL Kids for SL Kids. Many different buildings to explore, the MnK HQ is there too. Arts made by Sl Kids, the (SLC) learning tree with a lot informations, the transmogrifier for adults who want to be a SL Kids fulltime or just from time to time...yes you were reading right: Adults are allowed there too! We will tear down the biased opinions about SL Kids (or try it) grins. All welcome! If you need help or advice or can't find the answer yourself, we have KIC Mentors to help you, some of them also Second Life Mentors. Just go to the "Old Town" over the suspension bridge to the first buidling you see at the left hand. Enter it and you will see a display with all Mentors and the language they speak and their online/offline status. Click the sign and type your message into the open chat.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/KIC/128/128/33

sven Homewood

Clash of the Kids [Updated]

Well Linden Lab have done it again. They have announced something that effects their residents again. And once again the entire grid community seems to be up in arms. Though at first i was not sure how their new policy on adult content was going to effect me.

The Child Avatar Community is a special magical thing that has never happend anywhere before. SL is the cradle of life for a community of people around the world that live second childhoods, no other platform can claim that.

We all have invested so much time, money and emotion into our new gangs of friends and adventures. So far i think we have felt safe knowing that everyone around us, even if we pretend to be kids are in fact adults. The Child Avatar community spearheaded a clean non-adult environment to play and it seems Linden Lab are wanting more of the main grid to follow this.

But will this mean we will eventually loose that secure blanket that keeps Child avatars seperate from REAL kids? We have worked hard to make this world within SL and it's easy to feel backstabbed if LL decide to drop the 'Adults only' rule of being in SL. It would drop us all in a moral dilemma that we did not want, 'is it ok for underage residents to mix with Adults who pretend to be kids'?

This is the question that has to be asked even if LL decide to push it aside. Why has LL decided to seperate Adult content from the rest of the grid if not to prevent the possibility that underage residents might make unverified accounts?
We already have options for Adult Residents to avoid adult content, for example the Huds that tell you wether the place you are is Rated R.

Even if Linden Labs reasons for moving Adult content has nothing to do cleaning up the main grid for underagers, we still need to start thinking about the future and how the interaction between underagers and Kid Avatars could and should be.

Some argue that it should not matter if the people you interact with are adult or underagers, as you treat all people the way you would want to be treated. That the Kid Avatar is by nature a caring, imaginative and inspiring individual and who better to draw experience from.

Who would parents prefer an underager to be shown around the main grid? A Child Avatar resident, or a scantly clad Stripper?

There is a view that underagers would prefer to go hang out with the strippers than play with virtual kids, but that cant always be true. A lot of the stuff that we build for our own virtual second childhoods are based on the same kool things that real underagers find kool so it's not impossible that underagers might be drawn to the fun and games we also enjoy as Kid avatars.

There are some that feel no matter how safe we try and make things in our community, that there will always be the chance that being a child avatar will be exploited for deceiveful means. This though can be applied to any type of avatar community in SL, and any type of chat program infact.

The debate about Child Avatars, Adult Content and Underagers on the Main grid will go on for ever. As a community we need to be recognised for our deeds so carry on being the kool kids of SL.

[UPDATE] ABC news ran a sensationalised story about a wii game and concerns about adults and children playing same games. Read an article about it here

Roleplaying Sims and the Kid AV

Well, been a bit of time since I last posted, and there are loads of things I’ve been doing and that I want to talk about. One thing I have heard quite a bit about recently is how kid AVs seem to be excluded from quite a few of the role playing activities in sl, particularly the combat ones. There was even a bit on the Milk and Kookies Show this last week about a combat system that appears to discriminate against kid AVs.

What I want to speak about is a role playing sim that includes combat, and that I have been an active part of for quite a time, as a kid AV.
Antiquity is a group of sims that follow a timeline of around the Napoleonic and early Victorian eras. There are pirates, a French group, a contingent of Portuguese, and various others wanting to enjoy that period of history. I belong to a group whose members play mainly British troops of the era, including Guardsmen, Riflemen and Highlanders, along with a very active Navy.

Last year, I was introduced to the group as a musician, playing the flute befor>e, during and after the combat roleplays. I always appeared in my kid AV form, and have been welcome at the scenarios, where I always find everyone joins in the interaction with the idea of a drummer boy with good heart (though some seem to think my playing is good reason to shoot me, and that’s just my own side!)

When we have fought the other groups, I have been included and accepted by the other groups without reservation, and think that having a youngster involved has given them the opportunity to explore a greater range of role play. Since young people were active in life and combat of the period, as drummers, cabin boys, horse handlers, powder monkeys and in many other roles, we can bring a vibrancy and depth of feeling to places like Antiquity that accept us as we are.

I would encourage others to join in with any role play sim, if you are not certain they will welcome you, ask! If they say no, well, ask another, and another, until you find one that says “Well… “, then jump in with both feet and have fun! They will find out how much more fulfilling role play is when it has a full spectrum of aged AVs, and you will have found another place to enjoy yourself in sl.

Horse riding field trips

Hi... i know, i did not write much, but i decided to do some of my field trips for german speaking kids. So i did most of them now and i will give a short overview in german here now:

Hallo, ich mache nun auch die Pferdausritte für dt. sprachige Kids. Soweit wurden schon die Avarien Sims (Grendels Children), das Bliss Garden Center besucht. Der nächste Ausritt geht nach IOW - Isle of Whyrms, macht euch auf einen Ausritt mit Drachenbegegnung bereit!

Wer interesse hat, kann gerne die Trips bei mir auf einer NC bekommen!

Ich werde auch diese Trips in dt. in der SLC Gruppe ankündigen!
I will announce these trips in the SLC group too (in german).

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