Sometimes I just don’t know if the people running Second Life are naive or stupid. Why? Just take this entry from the Age Verification FAQ.

What if I’m under 18?

If you are under 18, do NOT lie about your age or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our system. Instead, access Teen Second Life at http://teen.secondlife.com/. Take our word for it -– you’ll like TSL much, much better. Only Residents between the ages of 13 and 17 are allowed to access Teen Second Life, and there are incredible opportunities there to interact, learn, and be creative, without any adults to get in your way.

Do they absolutely think that a mere warning or by saying “do NOT lie about your age” will stop minors from signing up with Second Life’s main grid? Seriously? When did saying NO to a teenager actually stopped a teenager from doing something? Are these people from this time period or did they come from the past transported through time using some kind of time portal?

You know what Linden Labs if you are truly and sincerely serious about Age Verification or from limiting access to the main grid to adults only then you should place the Age Verification thing during sign-up and not after. What you are really doing is, you are protecting youselves by placing the responsibility and accountability to your residents. Residents don’t own anything in Second Life and you have clearly indicated that by removing it from Second Life’s tag line and since you are the sole owner of everything that is Second Life then it is your responsibility to protect your residents and not the other way around.

This same topic was posted by HBA in his blog Backpacking Burro and I felt compelled to comment and post a blog about it.