Didn’t Your Mother Ever Tell You, “Not to Accept a Teleport from Strangers?”

Well, I guess Dembe’s mother didn’t. Or at least she didn’t have to back when “she” was growing up. :-)

Teleport, I didn’t even know what a Teleport was until my Avatar, Dembe, was created in Second Life. Now the word Teleport, or the acronym tp, is a vocabulary word of my everyday life, RL included.

Okay, so what is the harm of accepting a Teleport from a person in SL? Well, I found out the other night. I innocently accepted a teleport to Bombay. Yes, from a strange Avatar. I of all people should have known better. But, I figured how bad could this location I am being Teleported to be? I did not know that up to this point in time I could actually experience fear for my Avatar, Dembe. I must mention that I am giving Bombay a 0 rating and it is definitely not a G, PG or even a PG-17 rating. Let me give you a visual; It was like walking down 42^nd street in NYC back in the mid 1970’s, but scarier. Okay, I knew for Dembe’s sake I had to get a grip. I needed to get her out of this location and fast! But, how – do I dare teleport to another location not knowing anything about this island and region, could things actually get worse? Well, the answer to this question is "Yes." As bad as Bombay was, there are worse. I just needed to keep Dembe and my wits about us and “not touch” – I mean “click” on anything as I walked through Bombay. The only thing that kept going through my head was, “Boy, am I glad I took Victoria’s advice and changed Dembe from her Princess Fairy costume to something more conservative. :-)

While walking down the street of Bombay and in shock at what I saw, I suddenly realized that I could Teleport myself out to a safe place I already knew by using my SL profile. I quickly clicked on Dembe and went to her profile, clicked on the picks tab, picked the Nantucket Tab and then hit teleport. With a big deep breath, I relaxed when I saw those wonderful words –“Contacting that region.” I knew Dembe was going to be safe again on a familiar island in SL. Wow - talk about living vicariously.

What did I learn from this? Well, just as in RL there are dangerous places in SL. There are red light districts, guns and violence. You always have to watch out for your Avatar. Never accept Teleports from people you do not know. And above all, follow the same rules of safety as in RL.

Dembe