Please can someone explain a few things about xbox live?

[DigestivesAndPhiladelphia]

My DS wants xbox live so that he can play minecraft with his friends.

Will I be able to set it up so that he can only talk to his friends? (He is 8). His xbox is also an older one - 2008 I think. Will Xbox live work with this?

My final question is, if I buy the subscription and a headset then is it easy to set it up? I haven't really got a clue about the xbox and I can't find any simple explanations online. Any help appreciated!

[PedroYoniLikesCrisps]

I don't know much about the parental control specifics of XBox, but I can tell you that Live is available on the XBox 360 and XBox One. The One is the new console just released and the 360 has been around since November 2005. Before that was the original XBox. So if you bought it in 2008 it's almost certainly a 360.

Personally I think it's a bit of a rip off charging you to play online after you've spent hundreds on a console and the best part of fifty quid on a game already.

[DigestivesAndPhiladelphia]

Thanks Pedro. I am still in two minds about it but at least I know it will work with his xbox if I decide he can have it.

[Ratbagcatbag]

He can make friends with whoever he wants, and then go into games with them. We kept a very tight rain on dss friend list and he was only allowed to accept friend requests if he knew the person.

Don't give him an obvious username, and thi k carefully about it as you have to payto change it later on.

In larger play games such as COD etc, then anyway can be heard talking unless you mute them, to be fair as they're 18 rated that's likely to not be an issue.

We've had fairly strict rules with it and dss is now 15 and fine with it.

[secretscwirrels]

Minecraft is better on a pc. You can then chat to real friends on Skype.

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

Is it easy to set up? Hell no! We have been trying for 2 weeks and I think DH is about ready to drop kick the damn thing out the window!

We have googled frantically and MAY have sorted it tonight (it kept saying that settings were too restrictive) but now can't test as his friend is online playing with other friends. He has random XBox 'friends' and they cannot 'join' games where you haven't accepted everyone involved as friends.

I can already see the fact that I won't allow random strangers access to his content/messages is going to be a stumbling block at 8.