Google+ has always been the place for real life sharing. So far it has focused in connecting people with other people. However, in order to build relationships with all the things that people care about Google+ launched Google+ pages worldwide. The age selector in the Google+ page lets the admin to limit the views to people whose age is above 18.

So, is this the end of 18+ age limit on Google+?

The age options in the page include “Any Google+ user” and “users 18 and over”. The second option may probably be used if users under 18 can someday have access to this service as it is restricted to the “minimum age” or older. If Google+ finds any user below 13 years of age, their account will be deleted within 30 days. Initially many Google+ users were surprised at the launch of this site which lacked non-inclusion of an age group known to share lots of contents including videos, photos, posts etc. But now, it is evident that the option will someday become available, while still maintaining the page restrictions on subjects such as alcohol and tobacco to minors.

In a discussion, a Google employee said, “We won’t be able to allow users under 18-years-old into field trial until we are confident that we have the right teen safety features in place. We currently have no plans to open to users who are under 13“. Though I found some angry posts regarding the age restriction, some people argue stating that Google+ is competing with Facebook to increase its number of users as 18% of Facebook users are under 18 years. Remember how Facebook was limited to college students who had an invite which was later offered to college students without an invite. Later it moved to highschoolers without an invite. Now everyone can have a Facebook account.

According to the TechCrunch post, the writer doesn`t seem to be happy with minors entering the site. He states that this is not a wise move by Google. Adding to that he said, Google has squandered its initial growth momentum and it will never attain the wildfire spread of Facebook. Many Google+ users seem to enjoy the lack of minors as they have been able to create a industry based demographics which is kind of like a cross link between LinkedIn and Facebook.

However, by allowing the 13-17 demographic will allow Google+ to create a strong business presence. Many tech savvy teenagers also welcome this decision of Google+. Initially they were all a little worried with the age restriction imposed on the site. This smart move by Google hopes to keep a positive approach on press and will turn Google+ into a more mature environment. The quality of content is far superior here when compared to any other social network. Though it was initially targeted for the “Most influential people in the society”, it seems that now the site is gearing up to opening it to all users. Though some may find it weird to be on the same network that has lot of teens, many social networks still find the ‘teen-feel’ but Google+ has a mature feel.

This move of including younger users could be a significant factor towards helping Google+ to succeed over the long term.