They start young.

It's very telling about the state of my ego when a 12 year old boy almost managed to charm the pants off of me.

I was playing MS when I started chatting with another character. His sentences were peppered with "honey", "sugar" and "sweetie", and his English was pretty good. That's what got me. In a place where childish and singlish conversation abound, I was immediately curious about the person behind this character. So I asked him how old he was - and was floored by his reply.

"I'm 12. Will be 13 soon."
Yeah right was what I thought. "Sure" was what I replied.
"You don't believe me?"
"Well, 12 year olds don't talk like that" I said.
"Everyone says I'm a charmer." His confident reply.

Then he asked for my age. Joining in the fun, I told him I was 9. "Well, since you believed me, I shall trust you." He typed. And so we went on, flirting and occasionally killing some monsters, until we reached a point where I almost revealed my actual age to him.

"Oh I'm old and forgetful," I said.
"You lied! You said you were 9, and I believed you!" came his message.
Trying to cover my ass, I asked, "Then how old do I sound like?" At this point, I was almost ready to tell him that I was twice 'his age', plus one, when his reply came fast and furious.
"It's the way you said it. 9 year olds don't talk like that. You sound like you are... 14."

Short of falling off the chair with laughter, I felt my maternal instincts oozing out of my large pores. I had to stop myself. IF he's really 12, that is. Ha!

"You're cute" I said.
"Yeah everyone says that. Especially the girls."

Humour me and let's pretend he's 12, shall we?