Does age really matter on Facebook?

BANGALORE, INDIA: According to online journal First Monday, almost 7.5 million kids on Facebook have lied about their age. Opening up Facebook to kids in the age group of 13 and above comes at the expense of laughs from the pre-teens and some in the smart 14-plus.

Most of them are addicted to Facebook already. They are connected to their classmates and other friends.

So, let's look at two scenarios that could emerge.

1. Truth will prevail: All 13 year olds will welcome this as a total understanding by Zuckerberg, and Facebook servers will almost crash as they all update their age profiles. New and reluctant joinees - The ones who have been unable to register will now join the growing subscriber base of Facebook.

Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook will use these true profiles as key influencers in buying products and services to up the potential ad revenues.

2. Smart kids' "Yeah right" approach: These already enrolled kids don't really care about Facebook age barrier. They really don't even bother to update their age profile.

These kids are smart, you see. They don't want Zuckerberg and his team backtracking sometime later quoting security or safety issues, and knocking of their virtual lives and friends list, which they have passionately built.

Facebook has become a great fun tool for these kids. Their time online is spent mostly on Facebook. They rarely e-mail, they are also smart to select their group of friends that they know are in their known circles. They enjoy it and really don't think that lying about one's age is morally or in any other way wrong.

Can Facebook really bring out the truth? Can it enforce the age barrier? Can they assure safety and security? Tell me your views.

(Anil Kumar Ravindran is senior vice-president of CyberMedia India Limited)