Many states have a drinking age requirement of 21 years of age. People can register to vote and register with Selective Service when they are 18. Young men and women can start driving when they are 16. Children are always looking at being older because of the extra things they can enjoy or participate in due to the age. Therefore, some people had issues with the fact that the social medium Google+ could not be used by teenagers under the age of 18. However, pretty much anyone that uses any form of social media knew that sooner or later Google would adjust that policy accordingly. That happened today.

Thursday morning, January 26, the VP of Product for Google Bradley Horowitz released a post on Google+ entitled Google+: new safety enhancements, now available for teens. There is quite a bit to cover from that post but the most important item is this; Google+ is now available to children as young as 13 years of age.

Social media is something that parents and guardians need to actively participate in if they allow their children to communicate with others via a social network. Google realizes this, which is why when the social medium was first released the summer of 2011 a minimum age requirement of 18 was set at that time. This change brings Google+ in line with the age standard Facebook had already set, sure to be one of the reasons for the decrease in age requirement.

Google has taken the Circles feature already on the social network a step further when dealing with children and teenagers. Safety is a big concern with the Google folks, reminding children to think before they post, explaining to them that only people in their Circles can communicate with them. More important, if a teenager is video chatting with friends in a Hangout and a stranger enters, the teen is removed from the chat to protect him or her with an option to rejoin later.

Many, many children use the internet and many of them use social media. It makes perfect sense that Google would open up its social network to a wider audience. The question is will children use Google+ with restraint and wisdom and will their parents help educate them in how to use the platform in a fun but safe manner?