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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. Crazy timing as I just found out DD (15) has an online friend. They talk to each other as they play Minecraft Bedwars.

I’m ticked because I thought it was a school friend, and she didn’t tell me otherwise. I saw Discord notifications on the family desktop today about playing tonight. I peaked as I didn’t recognize the name.

So after some digging this evening (as I hear them playing), this person seems to be a young adult woman. Her business Twitter account is 2 years old and she has far more followers than people she follows. She is also a Cisco Champion. DD is very interested in gaming/streaming.

Also, DD is lonely, wants more friends, had a lot of challenges, and the family therapist wants me to let her have input where possible.

I am trying to be fair about this. I just don’t see where a young adult with good boundaries wants to play Minecraft with a high school freshman.

Any suggestions for this horrible conversation I’ll need to have? Without making it sound like I don’t believe people would just want to be friends with her?[/quote]

There's not that much difference between a 15yo playing a game and a 22yo playing the same game.  As long as they're just talking about the game and other innocuous subjects, it's fine.

When I was in high school, I had more than 30 friends that were just as into renaissance reenactment as I was.  Most of them were 20s and 30s.  I knew the rules about going anywhere with them, going to their cars, calling my mom, etc.

When you have an interest that diverges from the rest of the crowd, it can be both isolating and freeing.  They need to be able to find their own friends, and when it's a niche interest (like gaming for teen and young adult women), age goes out the window.[/quote]

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