Adults only for Xbox Twitter, Facebook

Microsoft has confirmed that the forthcoming Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm applications on Xbox Live will only be available to members over the age of 18.

Despite the social media resources being freely accessible on the web, the software giant has opted to restrict them to just adult Xbox Live users.

However, the firm does intend to offer flexible parental controls to free up the services to younger gamers, but this will only arrive "several weeks" after launch.

Writing on his Major Nelson blog, Microsoft's Larry Hyrb said: "We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren't able to use Family Settings to customise which of these applications their children can access.

"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."