Mine has a boyfriend at 13. He is 14.
She has actually been waiting to turn 13 so she can call him boyfriend!
They are really good friends. Quite cose.
All the boys and girls I know from her group are in partners. They do switch around every now and then.
It does worry me only in one aspect. She wants to spend time with him, and she does not think in the lines I want her to quite often. So she will walk with him to his house, which is very close. But to me it means she walks on her own around 7 min in a road with low traffic, and not much public lighting. While she could say goodbye to him 7 minutes earlier, in a well lit busy street and walk home safer.
At the moment this is the main issue. Her hanging around his house talking to him instead of safely walking back to her own home. This leads to arguments as I am very insistant in: I want to know where she is (and she should be back home, 7 minutes away), and I want her to take the safer route.
On the other hand, he shows to be quite protective of her when they are together.
Otherwise they are ok. They hug sometimes, but as far as I know, there is no intention of snogging, yet. Not into that, it is gross to them so far. Hopefully it will last a good while.
It is allien to me, as at 13 I had zero interest in boys. I actually did not get any interest in them through my teen, none whatsoever. She knows this.
I was quite puzzled when I heard of boyfriends and girlfriends when they were 12, but seems to be the norm around here. Some role playing, I suppose.