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Google+ will reduce its minimum age requirement for registering users to 13 years old. This is the second of the week’s sudden changes to the most recently founded social network and brings it in line with the age limit employed by rival Facebook.

The age restriction previously allowed no one under the age of 18 to sign up for a Google account but today the internet giant confirms that that age will be lower to allow youngsters to socialise with Hangouts and communicate and share with Circles. Google promises a safe environment for newly joining teens and we must admit that during the few weeks we found the social site somewhat interesting it did look an entirely “cleaner” alternative to Facebook, which has become infamous in the past year for slipping when it comes to preventing obscene and harmful link sharing and cyber-bullying.

We’re somewhat surprised by Google’s recent pair of announcements. Both revealed within the past four days, one this age limit drop and the other is the news that Google+ is to allow registered and registering new users to choose and display an alias or nickname which was previously disallowed with some members even having their accounts removed to maintain the legitimacy and serious tone of the social net.

Both moves do have benefits to Google+ opening up the social experience to a younger crowd, or “most active Internet users on the planet” as Google refers to them, should raise numbers which have been disappointingly dwindling since the site went live to the public at large on September 21st 2011. And allowing pseudonyms should sway back those who were turned off by not being able to use a popular or known name, as well as providing interesting opportunities for celebrity endorsements.

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Tags: 13 years old, age, cyber-bullying, Environment, Facebook, google, minimum, network, requirement, Safe, social