Is World of Warcraft Apropriate for 12 yr old?

[mrs_oli]

Hi--my 12 year old son has been asking about World of Warcraft. Anybody familiar with this site? My concern is that it is not appropriate for a 12 yr old. I've checked it out and my gut instinct is to say no to him, but I promised I would research it. Any input or opinion is appreciated!!
TIA,
Michelle

[Mama Dragon]

My 10 year old plays it...she's becoming an amazing typer and it's helping with her [horrible] spelling because I don't let her type with "internet speak"...it's a good game, really, DH and I love it too. As long as the kid isn't sitting there for hours on end, and gets outside and exercises, I think it's no different from any other game. My daughter is SO proud when she completes a quest or makes a new high level.

[UnschoolnMa]

I think it is fine for a 12 year old. My son plays all sorts of stuff like that.

[LISSA~K]

Dh is just an overgrown 12 year old cause he loves WOW! yeah, from what I have seen it's not terribly gory or anything, but I can't be sure.

[mrs_oli]

Thank you for the responses! Do other players send messages? I guess what my concern would be him receiving inappropriate messages (ie cussing, inuendos, etc). Do any of your kids receive "naughty " messages?

[Arduinna]

Honestly? There is adult talk sometimes even in general chat, even though it's not supposed to be there. And there is nothing stopping someone from sending a whisper (a private message) to another player that could be deemed inappropriate by the receiver. You can put people on ignore so they can't send you messages. There is a feature that lets you block curse words, but technically you aren't supposed to be cursing in the chat anyway.

And since it's actually the kids that are the ones that post the most obnoxious stuff, I doubt it is anything that isn't heard at school. There seems to be a preponderence of kids using the term gay to = stupid (extremely annoying to me) and lots of lame this and that and retarded seems to be quite popular.

Although this type of problem seems to be most common in the character starting areas and the major cities. You can always choose to leave a chat channel so it doesn't appear on your screen.

[mrs_oli]

Thanks.....I did hear that there is a filter but I wonder how affective it is. My son has a pretty good head on his shoulders but I guess you just never know..
His friend says he has a free 15 day trial my son can use so we'll start there. We can always cancel it if need be.
Well, I'll go tell my DS the good news.....at least about the free trial