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Second Life® is a social experience, but sometimes you just want some peace and quiet. Here are ways to get time and space to yourself inworld.

Show your online status only to friends and group members

You can set your preferences so only your friends and fellow group members see when you're online:

1. Choose Me > Preferences > Privacy.
2. Uncheck Show me in Search Results.
3. Check Only friends and groups know I'm online.

Hide your online status and location from a specific friend

In the Second Life Viewer:

1. Choose Me > Profile 
2. Click the People icon.
3. Choose a Resident from the list, click on the Gear icon next to his or her name, and choose Permissions.
4. Deselect See my online status to hide your status from them.
5. Deselect See me on the map if you don't want your friend to be able to track your inworld location.

Go into busy mode

1. Select Me > Status > Set busy. Chat and instant messages are hidden, and an auto-reply is sent to those who IM you.
2. If desired, customize the autoreply by opening the General tab of the PREFERENCES window and typing text into the Busy mode response field.

Create a private area

On a Private Region

Private Regions in Second Life offer the greatest control and flexibility for configuring access.  As the owner of a Private Region, you can control access and permissions for the entire region, as well as for individual parcels within it.

For added privacy, you also have the option of ensuring that your region does not have an immediately neighboring region.

For information about how to purchase a Private Region, please see Buying Private Regions.

Follow these steps to configure your region to permit access only to designated Residents and groups:

1. Stand on your Private Region.
2. From the menu at the top of the Second Life viewer, select World > Region/Estate. The Region/Estate window opens.
3. Click the Estate tab and set the following options:
   • Allow Public Access - Leave this deselected; doing so will allow only those on the access lists to enter your Private Region.
   • Allowed Groups - Use the Add function in this window to add the group you want to allow access to the Region.

You may also configure the following options, which help grant administrative controls to others that you trust and further limit access to the region:

• Estate Managers - Residents who are estate managers have access to region/estate controls. 
• Allowed Residents - If there are Residents to whom you wish to grant region access who aren't members of the allowed groups, add their names here.
• Banned Residents - Residents on this list will not be able to enter your Private Region. 

On a mainland parcel

The Second Life mainland offers an alternative to Private Region ownership, with some considerations. The mainland is made up of many interconnecting regions managed by Linden Lab. This means that you have configuration options for your parcel but cannot control who your neighbors are, what content exists outside of your parcel, and who is able to visit nearby parcels.

For information about purchasing a parcel on the mainland, please see Buying land.

Configuring access to your parcel

Once you have ownership of your parcel, follow these steps to configure your parcel's security options:

1. Stand on your parcel.
2. Choos World > About Land in the Second Life Viewer.
   The ABOUT LAND window opens.
3. Click the GENERAL tab.
4. To set the land to the group that contains the students or Residents you wish to have access to the parcel, click the Set button next to Group. The GROUPS window opens.
5. Select the desired group and click OK. The group is now set.

Click the ACCESS tab and configure the following options:

• Uncheck Alllow Public Access.
• Allow Group Access - Check this to enable your group of students or Residents to have access to the parcel.
• Allowed Residents - If there are Residents to whom you wish to grant parcel access who aren't in the allowed groups, add their names here.
• Banned Residents - Residents on this list will not be able to enter the parcel. This list is typically added to on an as-needed basis.

Create a skybox

If you own a parcel of land, you can create a skybox:

1. Rez a prim (right-click the ground and select Create).
2. Right-click it and select Sit Here.
3. Once seated, click the Object tab of the Tools window (you may need to click the More >> button to expand the tools).
4. Set Position (meters) Z to 500, which is a typical skybox height.