This is clever, funny and oh so accurate.

Link for feeds.

I don’t understand what Scoble is trying to prove by continuing to break Second Life‘s no-kids rule, this time from the podium at some conference.

All he managed to accomplish was to get himself kicked out of Second Life.

With all the issues and criticism surrounding MySpace and all of the problems that arise 100% of the time you mix children and grownups in online interaction, I would think Scoble would applaud Second Life’s attempt to actually do something meaningful to protect kids by creating a teens only version of Second Life. That may not be enough, but it is light years ahead of the meaningless jargon tossed out by MySpace in the name of doing as little as possible while placating the non-tech masses.

Scoble posted critically of the Second Life policy back in early May. I told him then why he was wrong and I feel the same way now.

Scoble admits he has been warned and that he saw this coming.

Here’s my question to Robert: Are you really saying that all parts of all of the net should be open to people of all ages? Surely you don’t believe that, and surely you aren’t suggesting that the application providers have no duty to at least try to make their services kid-safe?

I don’t really think Scoble’s doing his kid any good by publicly flaunting this rule, and I’m certain he’s not doing kids in general, many of whom have univolved parents, any good.

I just don’t get the point of this little tea party.

Here’s my question.

If you’re a happily married, middle aged man who likes to build things but is not big on chatting with strangers, what, exactly, do you do in Second Life after you’ve built your castle?

I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but I think I’ve lost my jones for Second Life. I have built a fine castle from scratch, with good music and lots of gadgets. Now on those rare occasions when I log onto Second Life, all I do is wander around my ghost-town of a region and ask myself “what now?”

I’m not much of a computer gamer, so the casinos hold little attraction. I’m not too interested in chatting up random strangers. I have explored about as much as I want to.

In sum, I’m bored.

Second Life is fantastic from a technological perspective and I am still sold on the business plan, primarily because of its appeal to young people. I’m just not sure what there is to do there that will keep my attention.

Any ideas?

Unless I come up with a plan, I think I’m going to bag it.

OK, I still own too much Second Life land, which costs me money since your Second Life monthly fee is based on how much land you own. I’m going to give away three tracts of land and here’s how it will work.

I have three tracts of land that I am going to give away.

Tract One

The first tract is a 3,872 square meter tract, with roadside frontage. It has a castle on it that I built myself (thus it’s unique). You can keep the castle or trash it and build something else.

This tract is located at Sabine 191,173,65 and is just up the road from my house and the other tracts I am giving away.

Tract Two

The second tract is a 2,496 square meter tract that is beside my house and behind the third tract described below. It has no improvements on it and is located at Sabine 215, 147, 63.

Tract Three

The third tract is a 2,240 square meter tract, also with roadside frontage. It has a house on it, which you can keep or trash and build something else.

This tract is located at Sabine 145, 123, 60 and is right beside my house.

The Rules

If you’d like some free land and even a castle or house to go on it, all you have to do is link to this post. I will gather the entries from three sources: Technorati, Google (see the “Other Blogs” links in the left column) and Trackbacks (as shown below). To be eligible, a trackback must actually link to this post (no nofollow tags).

On Monday, May 29, 2006, I will put all of the entries in a shoe box, shake them up and ask Cassidy, Delaney and Raina to close their eyes and pick one. Tracts 1, 2 and 3 will be given away in that order.

You can enter for yourself or a friend. Only one entry per blog, but if you have more than one blog, you can enter once with each. I just want to get this land off of my books and maybe gain some good neighbors in the process.

As a bonus, I’ll pay the first month’s land use fee ($25.00) for the first winner picked who doesn’t already have a Second Life account.

Scoble posts about the Second Life rule prohibiting anyone under 18 from using the regular version of Second Life. As Pathfinder Linden, Second Life’s internet ambassador, explained in a Comment to one of my prior posts about the sin-tricity of Second Life, there is a separate Second Life for 13-17 year olds, where no one less than 13 or older than 17 is allowed.

Scoble understands the reason for the rules, but he says he doesn’t like them:

The thing is, I don’t necessarily buy into the rules of society, or the rules of Linden Labs. If I don’t mind my son getting into a Poker game, or seeing a virtual sex act, isn’t that my right as a parent to let my son experience those things?

No. Our puritanical society has set up rules and regulations about such things. If you enter a Las Vegas casino you aren’t allowed to let your kids sit down and play backjack. At least not until they are 21.

I do think the rules suck, though. This is a virtual world. Why do we need to live with first-world rules?

The problem, of course, is that they can’t let Robert’s kids in without letting everyone else’s kids in. And while I have never thought of myself as a Puritan, I don’t want my kids running around in Second Life. Sure, I might one day decide that one or more of my kids are responsible enough to be exposed to this sort of thing, but the only manageable approach with kids’ access is all or none. To try to set up some sort of a parental approval process would be a nightmare. Kids would hang around looking for a willing grownup to sign them in much like we used to hang around outside a convenience store looking for an 18 year old to buy us a six-pack.

If Second Life didn’t have and enforce this rule, thousands and thousands of kids would find a way into Second Life without their parents’ knowledge or permission and you would have a completely unacceptable mix of adults (who unfortunately always seem to gravitate to the R rated stuff- or worse) and kids (who should not be allowed to see or participate in that sort of stuff).

Sure, the lawyers probably told Second Life they’d better put some protections in place, because sadly the internet is a dangerous place for kids. But the fact that Second Life has some controls that may actually work, as opposed to the smoke and mirrors used by MySpace, is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Scoble, here’s all you need to ask yourself to see it my way: if the internet had existed when we were kids, how much time would we have spent trying secretly to find the very stuff we now want to keep from our kids?

I have no doubt that Scoble’s son is a responsible kid who can handle Second Life. But I bet he has some friends who are not and could not. Open the Second Life gates and there would be a ton of other kids running around who are not and could not. Not to mention the kids who aren’t really kids.

Second Life actually needs to do more, not less, to keep our kids out of the adult Second Life and to keep interlopers out of the teen Second Life.

They aren’t creating the patterns of behavior, they are simply reacting to them.

Here’s my latest report from the realm of Second Life.

I have figured out the building thing and have built a pretty nice house/castle from the ground up. Visitors are welcome. It’s at Sibine (100,75,54). Here is the SURL.

In order to square off the size of my tract of land, I bought a big tract of land next to mine. In Second Life, your monthly fee is based on the size of your landholdings, so I don’t want to keep the excess land. I have two tracts for sale now. One is a 992 sq. meter tract with a small cabin and one is 4448 sq. meter tract with a smaller castle I built. In furtherance of my desire to create a little neighborhood of grownups who share similar interests, I will slash the prices to significantly below what I paid for them for anyone I know who is looking to get a place in Second Life. Email me and we’ll talk about it.

I also have a 7216 sq. meter tract between my house and those tracts that is not on the market, but I would consider developing it for some sort of a group effort- perhaps a tech bloggers’ gathering place or something like that, should enough people be interested.

I don’t know if it’s possible to build a little “memeorandum” community in Second Life, but it would be cool if we did, and I’m willing to throw in some land to make it happen.