Letter to the Reader

 

I began my project thinking I would find tons of information about how teens were corrupted in Second Life in inappropriate ways, which led to the Teen Grid being made back in 2005.  I planned on making this the focus of my writing, however, when I started my research I realized that many of these incidences are not reported in any way in which I could access specific examples.  Also, I found more often that the issue has more to do with teens being inappropriate toward other teens.  I experienced difficulty finding information about Teen Second Life because bloggers with ethos are adults on Second Life and share their experiences there.  Thus, I focused more specifically on the general use of Teen Second Life.  I found many critical questions I could ask and do research on.  What is encouraging teens to use Teen Second Life? Why not just put them on the Main Grid?  What are the differences between the Teen and Main Grid?  What is Linden Lab doing to keep teens safe on the Internet?  Why is Teen Second Life so unpopular? What other places are teens going on the Internet?  

 

One topic I could not cover was the future of Teen Second Life.  I emailed Daniel Voyager, an experienced Second Life resident who had previously been on the Teen Grid and then transferred over to the Main Grid.  He gave me his insight for the future of Teen Second Life, but not enough to include in my paper.  Unfortunately, despite the safer area of the Teen Grid, he shared, "There is not a lot to do on the Teen Grid and its dead sadly and I (Voyager) can't see the Teen Grid lasting another year."  Even though this may just be one person's opinion, it is still valuable because of his experience with Second Life.  Asking questions about the future of Teen Second Life opens a new door to ask questions about and find more information.     

 

Technology for Teens

 

There is an ongoing multidimensional debate about what the new role of the ever-growing technology should be for teens today.  One aspect of new technology is the Internet, which includes gaming and all virtual world opportunities to which teens are exposed.  Many people debate as to whether these technologies are truly necessary for teens.  James Jackson explains in his article "Virtual Worlds for Kids",  "A recent study by the University of California (digitalyouth.ischool. berkeley.edu) concluded that kids who don't engage in such online socializing will be deprived of the basic social and technical skills needed to participate fully in our new multimedia society" (1).  With the importance of technology in mind, it is possible to explore deeper into a specific type of Internet world, Teen Second Life, and answer questions like why it was created, how popular it has become and if it has a place in the future of the Internet gaming world.

 

What is Teen Second Life? 

 

Teen Second Life was created in 2005 in order to separate teens from the adult content on the Main Grid of Second Life.  The Teen Second Life official website describes it as a place "Teens can create and customize a digital self called an "avatar", fly through an ever-changing 3D landscape, chat and socialize with other teens from all over the world, and build anything from skyscrapers to virtual vehicles" (Linden Lab "A Virtual World").  When looking at the big picture, the Teen Grid and Main Grid of Second Life are very similar, but they do have some fundamental differences.  One main difference is obviously the age of the residents.  The Terms of Service state, "You must be at least 13 years of age to participate in the Service. Users under the age of 18 are prohibited from accessing the Service other than in the area designated by Linden Lab to use by users from 13 through 17 years of age (the Teen Area)" (Linden Lab "Terms of Service") .  In addition to teens not being able to access the Main Grid, "Users age 18 and older are prohibited from accessing the Teen Area" (Linden Lab "Terms of Service").

 

 

Used with permission of Daniel Voyager

The picture above is from SLurl.com from January 23, 2009.  It shows the size difference between the Main Grids (everything left of the yellow line) and Teen Grid (circled in red).  Obviously, the Teen Grid is much smaller than the Main Grid.    

 

Used with permission of Daniel Voyager

The picture above is a map of the Teen Grid portion of Second Life from July 2008.  It shows the different areas in the Teen Grid.  

 

Teen Second Life Grid vs. Second Life Main Grid Experiences

 

I was able to make some observations about the Teen Grid without actually being able to experience it because I am too old.  The Teen Second Life Community appears similar to the Main Grid of Second Life.  The opportunity of building, exploring educational areas and interacting with other avatars still exists.  One experience I had in Second Life that I compared to Teen Second Life was the office hour of Blue Linden.  Although, I did not actually experience the Teen Second Life office hour, by looking at Daniel Voyager's photograph I can see some basic similarities.  First, a similar number of people showed up.  The teen avatars gather around Blue Linden (in the picture below) in the same way the avatars did in my experience.  However, it becomes difficult to compare the conversation of the meeting because I did not read the account from Teen Second Life.  It is note worthy though that the meetings were set up in the same way.  It shows how Teen Second Life prepares the adolescents for the Main Grid and controls aspects of the activities to make the two places similar.       

 

Used with permission of Daniel Voyager 

This picture shows Blue Linden's Office Hour in Teen Second Life in December of 2008.   

 

Another basic experience in Second Life is dancing.  Whether it is at a live music concert or a dance club, talk to any avatar and they've probably experienced virtual dance.  Unlike the office hour of Blue Linden experience, the experience appears to be much different when comparing the two photos below.   The first picture in Teen Second Life shows avatars that are modestly dressed.  Even the girls in the background are fairly covered up.  This makes the concert's appearance very age appropriate.  The second picture below shows the avatars all around me on the Main Grid dressed in a more suggestive manner.  Those avatars are certainly showing more leg than I would want my teenage son or daughter to be seeing, even if it is just an online simulation.

 

Used with permission of Daniel Voyager 

This photo is from Daniel's first year in Teen Second Life (2007) when he attended a live music concert.  

 

This is my personal avatar Alyxx Alecto at a dance club in Second Life.  

 

The education aspect of the community shows that just like Second Life, it can be much more than just a place to hang out with friends and dance.   Adults who know about Teen Second Life integrate it into their classroom experiences.  Diane Whiting, a middle school health teacher used a private island on Teen Second Life in her class when discussing body image (Boss).  Whiting explains, "Avatars and text chat created just enough anonymity so that kids felt comfortable about opening up" (Boss).  In her class her students created an avatar and then manipulated its appearance (Boss).  The teens first made their avatar look any way they pleased. Then, they changed their avatars to look similar to themselves and followed that with making their avatars look the way they thought the media defines beauty (Boss).  When acting as each avatar the teens chatted with each other about how they felt in their particular skin (Boss).  This project allowed space for a lot of creativity when making the avatars, but also the educational aspect of learning about how each different body changed them.  The teens could talk about these sensitive issues without having to actually speak up in class in front of their peers.  Similar educational experiences could take place on the Main Grid, but the teens would be exposed to other avatars that may act inappropriately.    

 

Popularity Amongst Teens 

 

After listing all of Teen Second Life's recreational and educational activities, it would seem like its popularity would coincide with the potential for fun.  However, teens have been signing up for accounts at an alarmingly slow rate. Teens' use of the Internet is not to blame though.  Other online sites pull in many more teens than Teen Second Life.  Wagner James Au reported in 2007 that Teen Second Life had 4,278 monthly active users (Au, "Open").  This may seem like a lot, but when compared with other sites Teen Second Life clearly falls to the bottom of the list of popularity.  In 2007 Habbo Hotel had 7,500,000 monthly active users and RuneScape had 5,000,000 (Au, "Open").  Both of these are similar to Teen Second Life because they are social networking, role-playing online games.  Clearly teens enjoy playing these types of games so the question is: What makes these games better than Teen Second Life?  

 

One game that has a much greater population than Teen Second Life mentioned above is Habbo Hotel.  Wikipedia gives a quick description of the popular online teen game.  It explains how there are many different components to the game including the hotel itself, user pages, groups, discussion forums, chat rooms and games (Habbo).  One thing that other games possess that Teen Second Life lacks are tasks, which raises the question: does not having a specific task cause Teen Second Life to be rejected by most teens? 

 

In addition to not having a goal, signing up for an account on Teen Second Life in the past was not easy and is still not as easy as other online games.  When Teen Second Life first started out, a valid credit card was needed in order to sign up (Au, "Teenage").  The expense of the Teen Grid was too high for Linden Lab to keep it open 24 hours a day, which also added to the initial aversion to it.  However, there were benefits to such a small population.  Wagner James Au described in his blog how "the whole population was like a community" (Au, "Teenage").  Even though some people enjoyed the small population, Linden Lab wanted to make it more accessible (Au, "Teenage").  They did this by making a mobile phone number the only ID required to make an account.  As Au describes, the solution to the problem made only more problems for residents already participating.  "With the value of the account dropping, more people started joining and simply harassing other members" (Au, "Teenage").  Au's experience shows how there are both benefits and drawbacks to Teen Second Life gaining more popularity.  The other residents around you in Second Life influence your experience, which may mean it is more beneficial to keep Teen Second Life's small numbers instead of having a large population of avatars that are not productive. 

 

Once teens have made an account there are, as with any virtual game, participants who don't return.  What goes wrong during their first few experiences that causes them to reject it and try another site instead?  Daniel Voyager explained, "Noobs are better treated on the Main Grid not the Teen Grid because there are more support/helping groups on the Main Grid. On the Teen Grid there were a few but nowadays they are inactive and TG is a lot smaller in population/land size."  This may mean that teens don't have a way to use the game and are thus going to another site that may be easier to use or that has more helping groups.  All of these factors could be reasons as to why Teen Second Life has not gained the popularity one would expect.      

 

Why No Teens on Main Grid?

 

Since the positives of education and recreation can be experienced on the Main Grid, then why not just allow teens on it?  The educational experience that Diane Whiting's class had could have easily been achieved on a private island on the Main Grid.  The problem is that even with an account that is not verified to be 18, like the one I have, it is still possible to be exposed to content not suitable for teens.  Linden Lab claims "PG regions are designed to be free of sexually explicit language or behavior, swearing and other forms of aggressive language, and violent behavior and imagery, including horror" (Wagner).  However, as you can see from the picture below, my avatar was able to get to a place that was not appropriate for a teenager.  Not only the places avatars can go, but also the other avatars they meet may not be appropriate.  Congressman Mark Kirk from Illinois advocates for the Deleting Online Predators Act and explains how "Drug dealers and predators routinely attempt to contact users in the real world once a meeting happens in Second Life"  (Jones).  There is a big difference between being exposed to adult content online and being exposed to drugs and predators in real life, but both are examples of harmful effects teens on the Main Grid expose themselves to.  Jones' article explains how "Kirk criticized Linden Labs for failing to use an age verification feature in its registration process" (Jones).  It would be a simple solution, but just like with Teen Second Life, having to verify your age makes account sign up more difficult and thus decreases it tremendously.  

 

Second Life is not the only online site teens use that allows them to be exposed to inappropriate content.  A study done by Brown University found that from "10.3 million messages posted on online message boards and social networks such as Myspace.com and teenspot.com, roughly two percent of these messages were about drug and alcohol, and about 80 percent of these were related to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine or acid/LSD" (Monti).  This data was counted by using propriety software and analytic methodology (BuzzMetrics 4).  The table below shows from the inappropriate conversation data collected, what types of online sites it was coming from (BuzzMetrics 22).  Although this shows different types of teen sites, Second Life falls into the category of social networking sites, therefore the possibility remains for these conversations to be going on there.      

 

This is a photo of a table that Nielsen BuzzMetrics' study used to show the percentage of teens discussing drugs and alcohol in different locations on the Internet.  

 

This is my personal photo that shows content inappropriate for teenagers.  There were also pictures of girls similarly dressed, but even more exposed, which is certainly not appropriate for a teen.  

 

Since it is clear that teens should not be on the Main Grid I sought out Blue Linden, a Linden Lab employee involved with Teen Second Life, and interviewed him during his office hour in order to find out how Linden Lab attempts to keep teens away.  Blue explained, "If there's any question (of the age of an avatar), the account is put on hold until real life, state-issued ID is provided."   I was then curious as to whether Linden Lab could access an avatar's age to see if they were an appropriate age and if there were any laws that coincided with age verification.  Blue Linden explained, "I don't believe there are specific laws. The laws were all very ill-defined (back in 2005 when Teen Second Life was created) but we wanted to do the right thing and make a place that was safe where teens had all the same tools."  However with the creation of Teen Second Life there is still no guarantee that teens won't sign up for Second Life despite not being of age.  When asked if there was any way to keep teens off the Main Grid of Second Life Blue Linden admitted, "No, there's no foolproof way to stop teens from accessing SL...or R rated movies in real life, or bars etc."  By giving adolescence a safe option in Teen Second Life and blocking access to adult areas, Linden Lab feels they have done enough to prevent their exposure to adult content.  

 

Conclusion 

 

There is no way to stop kids from making a SL adult account, unless Linden Lab changes its policy.  This is where the importance to educate parents plays a role in the teens' gaming experience. They need to know that adult content does exist and make sure their teens are signing up for appropriate accounts. At the same Linden Lab needs to make the adult areas less accessible on Main Grid since there is no way to stop a teen from registering.  Even by giving them another place to go like Teen Second Life there will still be some teens that don't follow the rules. However, having this other world allows them to "fit in" and who as a teen does not want to do that?  The bottom line is that adult supervision needs to be present and a teen entering the Main Grid of Second Life does not have that.  Jennifer Pierce explains how "If teens' brains are not fully developed, to what extent should young adult librarians advocate teens' rights to access any sort of material and to have information privacy that may exclude even their guardians' scrutiny?" (Pierce 27).  Teens need to be in appropriate places, made for them in order to stay safe on the Internet.  They also have more success if they are guided in their tasks, like in Whiting's classroom activity.  If they focus on a task, they wouldn't look for other less productive things to do.  This may mean that other Internet games that more teens use that incorporate a goal are safer for them anyway.  With this in mind the future of Teen Second Life is unknown.  What the site intends to be in theory does not translate to what it actually is in reality, or "virtual reality."  Clearly, the Internet will stay a part of teens' lives and it will be interesting to see what Linden Lab does with Teen Second Life.      

 

Works Cited

 

Au, Wagner J. "Teenage Wasteland?" Web log post. New World Notes. 12 July 2006. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/07/teenage_wastela.html>.

 

Au, Wagner J. "Open Forum: Why So Few Teens in Teen Second Life?" Web log post. New World Notes. 19 July 2007. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/07/open-forum-wh-1.html>.

 

Boss, Suzie. "Avatars Teach Teens About Self-Image." Online posting. Edutopia: What Works in Public Education. The George Lucas Educational Foundation, June 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009.

 

BuzzMetrics, Nielsen. "Qualitative Study of Online Discussions About Teen Alcohol & Drug Use." www.caron.org. 2007. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.

 

"Habbo." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2009.

 

Linden, Blue. Online interview. 2 Dec. 2009.

 

Linden Lab. "A Virtual World For Teens." Teen Second Life. Linden Lab Research Inc. Web. 3 Nov. 2009 <http://teen.secondlife.com/>.

 

Linden Lab. "Terms of Service." Second Life Official Site. Linden Research Inc. Web. 05 Dec. 2009. <http://www.secondlife.com>. 

 

Jackson, James. "Virtual Worlds for Kids." Times, The (United Kingdom). 29 Aug. 2009. 11. EBSCOhost.com 3 Nov. 2009.

 

Jones, K.C. "Congressman Seeks Second Life Ban In Schools, Libraries." InformationWeek. United Business Media LLC, 07 May 2008. Web. 07 Dec. 2009.

 

Monti, Peter M., ed. "Study: Teens Talk Drugs on the Internet." DATA: The Brown University Digest of Addiction Theory & Application 26.8 (2007): 8-8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. 

 

Pierce, Jennifer B. Sex, Brains, and Video Games: a Librarian's guide to teens in the twenty-first century. American Library Association, 2008. Print. 

 

Voyager, Daniel. "Collection: Teen Second Life." Flickr. Web 07 Dec. 2009. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/collections/72157603596877318/>.

 

Voyager, Daniel. E-mail interview. 07 Dec. 2009.

 

Wagner, Mitch. "Second Life Putting A Leash On Sex, Violence." InformationWeek. United Business Media LLC, 12 Mar. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2009.

 

 

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