President Obama has long maintained a commitment to allowing Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, to grow up as normally as possible, and pledged that over the next four years they would also have a special area in the White House for sleepovers with school friends.

By the time their father leaves office the Obama girls will be 18 and 15.

They will have spent most of their school years living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Malia will be at the age of proms and university applications.

They have so far been carefully shielded from the glare of publicity by their parents. The public has seen them only in choreographed glimpses, including on their first day at school in Washington, watching the Super Bowl, and when the president coached Sasha's basketball team.

As he celebrated his 2012 election win they appeared on stage with him in Chicago looking poised, and much taller than four years ago.

On a radio interview Mr Obama was asked whether the girls would be allowed to date boys during his second term.

The president said: "I think that any young man who has the guts to get through Secret Service deserves a hearing."

He added: "All Malia and Sasha want to do is being treated like anybody else. I embarrass them all the time.

"Michelle is very good about making sure that we're creating a space for them where they can have sleepovers. They can go to the mall. They can go to the movies. They're going to homecomings at their school."

The president has promised Malia that she will be able to learn to drive, rather than being ferried around by the Secret Service.

However, unlike the vast majority of their contemporaries, the Obama girls will not be on Facebook.

Source The Telegraph