Xbox Twitter for over 18s only

Despite the ease with which the services can be accessed online, Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM applications for Xbox 360 will be restricted to account holders aged 18 and over.

However, Microsoft does intend to introduce more flexible parental controls – but that won’t arrive until a future Xbox 360 update.

We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren’t able to use Family Settings to customize which of these applications their children can access,” Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb explained on his blog.

In order to offer an age-appropriate environment for everyone, we decided to turn off these applications for those Gold members under the age of 18.

We want to make sure everyone was aware, however, that the development team is working on an update that gives parents the choice of which social applications their children can access. This means that Xbox Live members between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to use Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm as long as their parents approve.”

There’s still no firm launch date for the new services on Xbox 360.