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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's nothing inherently wrong with being friends with people of different ages.  The most important thing to do is educate YOUR OWN children about being safe, not giving personal info (including their school's mascot or saying their school won the county championship, or that Mom is CFO of the most prominent real estate firm in town - things that can be looked up).

[b]My son became friends with a 55 yr old woman online.[/b] Both her sons were grown and out of the house, she worked from home, and my son thought she was funny and smart. He's 11. He's not running away to her or anything. [/quote]

In what context?[/quote]

He posted on an online "help with homework" forum for writing an essay he needed to do. She's an editor .[/quote]
To state the obvious....this works because the genders aren’t reversed. [/quote]

No, it works because she was looking to help, not make friends or find a date.  The friendship evolved because there was no pressure for it to do so.

I have zero issues with flipping those genders, if the same thing happened.  Issues start cropping up only when the first goal is a rushed friendship, and it's obvious to everyone except the (pre)teen that the adult wants to move quickly into much more than friendship.

Friendship isn't rushed, and there's no pressure.  If preteens and teens are taught that, then they can learn to recognize when someone is trying to pressure them into more.[/quote]

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