How bad is Xbox live??

My kid has a 360 and wants to start up a Xbox live account, how bad is Xbox live. (haven't played yet myself)take_this

The online gaming is incredible, but the people are generally jerks.

Let him play, but maybe without his headset.

if he's playing arcade games online, he shouldn't have a problem, unless it's uno.

just try to monitor it, there are a lot of great people on there, but also a lot of jerks. if he adds friends, ask to talk with them and make sure they're the kind of people you want him talking to.

there are extensive family settings you can use to choose what he can play, who he can talk to, etc.

It's good to see a parent post here.. as I am one myself.

Consider this... Xbox live is a place where people (mostly teenagers and maybe a bityounger) can play games online. Now, with that comes the annonymity of the internet where some people will say things just to offend others. You can expect racism, swear words, insults, and otherwise nasty behavior you normally wouldn't get anywhere else.

Some games are worse than others, so in my opinion, try out a few games by yourself (with the mic on mute) to get a taste of how it really is.

He's 12 years old and the games he's planning on playing are Call of Duty 3, Halo 3 when it comes out, and mostly lots of fps.take_this

Traditionally, those games seem to bring out the more aggressive types. He can always play without a headset if it gets too bad. But he's your son, so you should know what he is capable of handling.

The online gaming is incredible, but the people are generally jerks.

Let him play, but maybe without his headset.

Shmiity

Although it does vary from game to game, I must admit that no matter the game the amount of jerks/racists/just rude ppl in general, is disgusting. Depending on his age Ild just say ot have him deal with it and if youve raised him right, he'll know when people are being jerks and wont have to associate with them. I started playing online when I was 13, now being 17 Im in a Varsity sport, vice president of the national honors society as well as countless other things, so its not like it made me turn out bad. It actually was a good first look at how rude the world is, but like I said if you are confident in your parenting, your son/daughter will stray away from those kind of people and know they are bad. They can also while playing make "friends" and get into games with them. This is your best bet for him though if you are still a bit worried. To play games with just his friends he/she made online and just them.

Another solution if you are really worried about him, which is not to say bad parenting, just more worried, Ild say maybe you go play some of his games, talk to some people on there and see if they are cool with adding your sons/daughters account onto their friends list and just build up a small friends list for your son, that seem like good people and tell him to only try and play with them when he is on.

What it comes down to though, is that there are jerks all over Live, your going to run into them eventually, so I do not advise allowing him to get an account if he/she is under 13 or so. Hope that helps a bit.