quick survey please, what age did you let your kids on FB/COD and browse youtube?

[Art]

Hi - I'm really struggling here with the peer pressure of DS (10) and DD(6). I am apparently the ONLY mother who doesnt let her children do these things and DS in particular is getting quite left out socially because of it.
I am trying to strike a balance between not letting them grow up too quickly and be exposed to inappropriate material and not being so overprotective that they become totally ostracized.
I have browsed a few of the other threads along similar themes but would appreciate your replies.

Facebook- year 6 for both of mine. Ds is 11 and he is my "friend" so that I can keep an eye. He will be allowed to delete me once he's 13, like dd did.

Browsing utube- well we've sort of always done it, but together. He does it on his own now, but i'm around and glance ove his shoulder occasionally.

COD- I won't allow it in the house- I am very militant about this!

Thank you Seeker - How does DS manage when he is at friends houses. I feel I have put my DS into the difficult position of having to decide to either knowingly go against my wishes or refuse to play at the risk of being made fun of/left out. Tricky call for a 10yo.

Same as seeker, except DS hasn't thought to delete me, but I have his password in any event and I do check it regularly to see what his friends are posting on his wall, check the chat history.

Art- if it's being played at a friend's house then he plays it too if he wants to, and he has my full permission to. I would never expect him to refuse - that's too much to ask!

I know the minimum age for FB is 13 but my DD is 10 and many of her friends and cousins from around the country are on it. She was playing with it at her cousin's house when we recently visited (200 miles away) and really wanted to keep in touch so I relented. However, I have set her privacy settings to maximum, she is not allowed to accept or ask for friends without my permission and I have set up email alerts on my phone so I see everything that she and her friends are posting. As a result, she has 10 child friends and loves keeping in touch with them. Having mentioned this to a few friends of mine I have certainly had some disapproving looks! I feel however that it is important to teach our kids when they are young about internet safety and we have looked at child safety websites together and talked about the dangers so I think she's pretty clued up and I will have less to worry about when she is older (I hope!!)

13 for FB - it's an expellable offense at our school to have an account under that age. Parents who argued "our choice" were told to go choose another school.

15 for COD here - that's what it's rated in Australia. 18yo DS1 generally rates games for suitability for his 13yo brother - he's allowed to play some 15 games, COD is one of the few to which we have said "no way".

FB - ds1 was allowed when he was 13; ds2 was allowed at age 12.
COD - not yet. (They are 13 and 15.) Some COD games are 15, some are 18. But I really don't like the idea of violent, shoot-em-up games. ds1 is 15 tomorrow and I thought we would be relenting by now. But the topic seems to have gone quiet in the last 18 months or so, so I don't think they're that bothered now.

CoD - not allowed
Facebook - not allowed, but they can skype their friends
Youtube - about 7 or 8

but we have strict rules whereby they have to ask us before they open a new site/ tpe of thing..we generally say yes, so it's more of a them checking with us kind of process.

And no laptops upstairs at all, but in the kitchen/lounge/dining room where the rest of us are knocking about.

DCs are 11,9,5

DS2 is nearly 13. He has FB but never uses it. He goes on Youtube to watch Minecraft videos and he plays all manner of games on xbox but in real life is sweet,kind and not at all streetwise or inappropriate.

We have had "the talk" about online safety at regular intervals. His favourite reading material is Tin Tin and he is very much still a wee boy.Albeit a hormonal one with a breaking voice.