Facebook needs to open service to kids under 13

[Commentary] The kids are not flocking to Facebook. And investors are jittery.

When Facebook's chief financial officer said recently that daily users, especially younger teens, had decreased in the quarter, the stock took a nose dive. Facebook should do -- and fast -- is allow kids under 13 to join, and then figure out how to cater to them. Controversial, I know, but here's why it makes sense. The service's popularity has become self-propelling. The more folks we know on Facebook, the more time we spend on it. It's the network effect swelling to take in the entire planet. But the digital tastemakers are young teens and tweens. Adolescents' social networks aren't on Facebook yet; they are still in the cafeteria and on the playground. Their digital identities are just forming. They text and Skype while they play online games and beg parents for access to smartphones and tablet computers to download apps and try out new ways of communicating. Lunchroom conversations are a mixture of real information and bluster about the pros and cons of things like Kik, WeChat, Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram. This is where Facebook struggles.