Surfette

I just signed on to Second Life as a 15-year-old girl...and learned something

I wrote this post as a response to Professor Kim's post on BlogHer, "MySpace lawsuit sparks new safety rules for teens, but questions remain". Tag: Second Life.

Thanks for shining a light on the challenges faced by both the Second Life project and users, Kim. For the record, I'm a huge fan of Mitch Kapor and Linden Labs. I saw this world demo'd at MIT in 2002 and was captivated. But I've never tried it before. So tonight I tried to sign up as a teenager.

Worked like a charm.

Yes, I lied on the application and used a false email address. And then I cancelled the account.

Why'd I do it? To see how Linden Labs handles this as a business -- and how I handle it as a parent and a teenager who used to get herself into trouble all the time. Here's what I found.

I'm not a mommyblogger -- I'm a mommylurker. Now you can be too.

That's why we just launched the BlogHer Mommy & Family newsletter you see below. (Sign up here.)

As part of my work as a co-founder of BlogHer, I spend hours each week reading blogs by parents.

I think this is the best job I've ever had.

-----More below the break, including:

1. Bringing up Britney
2. Who's Your Daddy?
3. Only 69(thousand) Days Until School Starts
4. Birth - On Not Fighting It
5. What She Said