F-bombs and 9-year-olds

I'm trying to figure out exactly how I feel about 9-year-olds swearing. Ok, I'm certainly not all for it. But how strongly against it am I? And what if it's written down instead of said out loud? Does that make any difference? Or not?

Last night I had some friends over for my birthday, and George's 2 best pals came (along with their parents). Let me say that these are really good kids. They're both 9, as is George. J is the son of colleagues/friends of mine; I've known them for years but they just recently moved here, and George and J (who had met several times before) have become very fast friends. E is the daughter of very close friends of mine, and she and George have practically been raised together. All of that to say that these are kids I like, respect, and trust.

Anyway, we parents were busy doing our things (mostly chatting, but also playing pool and other games) and were happy to see the kids behaving well and enjoying themselves. They each had a Nintendo DS and were using the Pictochat feature, whereby they were sending each other messages across the room. They would also stop sometimes and interact with us (joining us for some snacks or whatever). They were clearly having fun, and I remember thinking to myself that I was relieved it was going so well, since sometimes when there's an odd number of kids someone can end up being left out, but that wasn't happening at all.

Then today, I get an e-mail from E's dad, to all of the parents, letting us know that E had mentioned that the kids were dropping f-bombs and writing the word "sex" back and forth to each other. How do I feel about this? And how do I feel about George swearing in general?

George hears me swear sometimes. I don't speak like a sailor or anything, but I probably swear several times a week. For one thing, I tend to be a little bit of a klutz and I hurt myself on a regular basis by bumping into things or catching a table leg with my toe, etc. etc. I have made it clear to him that there are times when it would be inappropriate for me to swear (at work or in front of people I don't know very well, etc.), and he actually understands that very well.

So, should the standard be the same for him, or not? I am not totally fond of double standards in general, though of course there are some things that it's ok for adults but not kids to do. Driving a car, starting a fire in the fireplace, drinking alcohol, etc. I guess I'm just wondering if swearing is indeed one of those things. Honestly, if he swears to himself, or even in front of me, every once in awhile, and it does not become a habit, it doesn't really bother me. But I know that it's something that does bother a lot of people, which for something like this (where the activity in question is easy enough to do without) is probably a good enough reason not to do it. He understands this reasoning; in fact, he has actually complained to me on occasion about kids who swear too much, that he does not like it.

I think he and these friends will likely back off of the swearing for awhile anyway, since I know all the parents talked to the kids about this case. I will probably just stick with telling George that since swearing does make some people very uncomfortable, especially when it's done by kids, that it's just better to avoid it. Yet part of me does feel that it's ok for him to be experimenting with language in this way with his closest friends in the safety of our home. This is a kid who loves language in general, and really enjoys exploring words and different ways of speaking, and is sensitive to contexts and audiences, and is quite keenly aware of many subtleties of ways of communicating. So I am at least partly reluctant to tell him that all swearing is strictly forbidden.

As I said, I'm trying to figure it out....