Things my parents never had to think about....

My oldest is going into 6th grade this year. Things I now have to decide are concerns my parents never had to worry about.

1. Cell phones.

-- Now, I am against a student bringing a cell phone to school. And, in general, I know where he is, whose house he's at. He is really very good about calling me to let me know what friend's house he went to. But here's the issue. I don't have a land line. My husband and I only use cell phones. The kid (and rightly so) wants to talk to his friends over the phone. So, do I get VOIP? The cheapest local calls only land line? Or should I just bite the bullet and get him the cell phone I'm going to have to get him in a few years anyhow?

2. Social Networking.

-- The kids do have their own computer (in a central location where I can keep an eye on them). They do have internet. But how much access should he have? He should be able to email his friends, but where do I draw the line? Should he get access to Facebook? What about Twitter? When is the right age for these social networking tools?

3. Online gaming.

-- With most of these games, the content of the game is not an issue at all. The problem is the interaction with other players. Most, if not all of these games have a censorship feature to prevent bad words from being displayed. There is no context censorship however. When is he old enough to deal with this?