Second Life Kids- Little Black Boy

By Mistee Jaxxon

"Kids don't have drama"

Don't blink twice when you're out and about on Second Life and in walks a feisty 6-year-old with a sawed off shot gun attached to his belt. He's not Dennis the Menace, he's Cigahy Mayako, but everyone calls him Ciggy.

In RL Ciggy is a 24-year-old Black man living in Atlanta, but in SL Ciggy uses his child-like avatar to gain attention and smiles from everyone he
encounters.

He rezzed in-world on December 5, 2007 after a good friend joined the SL community and he wanted to keep in contact with her. When he first logged on, he chose a simple adult avatar but after meeting several child avatars, he wondered what it would be like to be a child in SL. A friend helped him by showing him how to create a child-like shape and he fell in love with the resulting experience.

"I guess it's because I'm a big kid at heart," Ciggy says. "Because a part of your real life is displayed in your av and no matter how old I become, I'll always be a kid."

Although there are many female child avatars in SL, male child avatars are few and far between. But why aren't there more little boys on SL?

"I think everyone has this image of themselves and how things are suppose to be," Ciggy asserts."You're supposed to do this suppose to do that.They are putting limits on their imagination and not trying anything different. Every [male avatar] has to be buff with tattoos and fitting caps."

Although Ciggy may be a miniature version of the typical gangsta with a defiant attitude, a blinged out necklace and a gun strapped to his waist, he also carries a lollipop which he sucks periodically during our conversation.

Since SL was created specifically for adults complete with sexual themes and adult interaction, what exactly can a kid in SL do for fun?

"Well I do have adult friends that I hang out with," Ciggy says. "Just because I'm a kid I'm not gonna to abandon them. But as a kid, no, I DO NOT have sex on here. I don't have a girlfriend either."

Ciggy says SL does have attractions for the kid at heart."I have a couple of people spoiled. They love my company so I tend to spend most of my time visiting and what not. But I like to have fun, I watch movies at the theater, bowling, racing, anything to keep me out of trouble."

There's lots of trouble to get into on SL for a kid who doesn't have parents. Ciggy wanted parents when he first became a kid av but his parents tried to give him rules that he did not want to follow.

"They started giving me guidelines and saying I had to cut my hair. They tried to take my guns too," Ciggy says. "And that's just not me. You want me to be something I'm not. So I'd rather not deal with that."

The half-pint with the long, dark permed hair giggles as he admits that there are a few occasions where he steps out of his kid av. "I'll be honest, 90% of the time, I'm a kid on here because I was an adult before I was a kid but, there are events where you can't be a kid."

He's talking about club events where promoters throw themed parties like, 'Best in Tattoo's' or 'Best in Boxers'. During these type of parties, Ciggy grows up just for a little while.

"For me personally, I like the attention, I'm known a lot of places and by a lot of people and most of them I've never even been introduced to," Ciggy reveals. "If you play a kid like you're supposed to, it might be one of the greatest freedoms you'll ever have because kids don't have drama. We just color and play that's it."