text: There is no specific age at which you start dating others. The time to start is when you are ready; (in other words) when you can feel comfortable being all alone with a person of the opposite sex and know that you could take care of yourself if something were to start going wrong (ie, they want you to have sex, you don't...you have decided it's time to end the date and you want to go home, but they don't want you to, etc). And, of course, it always helps to have someone nice to start dating :)