The Effect/s of the Age Limit

So, Google+ has been around for quite a while now (about 6 months) and people under the age of 18 are still not able to sign up for the service. In the few official comments released, Google has claimed that they need to sort out privacy settings for minors before they'll be able to join up.

My question is this: why has it taken 6 months (rather, more than 6 months) to come up with suitable privacy settings? Is it so complicated? Or is there a lack of motivation/will?

I'm going to speak from experience here. I'm 16 years old, and I'll be 17 in May. I have a Facebook account, which I use regularly to chat with friends. Maybe "regularly" is an understatement -- I'm moderately addicted. I know how to use the privacy settings, and my information is set to private. People my age are, generally, the same in these ways -- heavy users of social networking.

All of my friends at school know what Google+ is. Similarly, they've all tried to sign up for it and not been able to. Thus, they turned away and went back to Facebook.

This isn't good for Google+. I'm not saying that Google+ isn't popular, but you'd be lying if you said it was anywhere near as active or popular as Facebook or Twitter. I'm not a statistician, but I'd be willing to bet that this is due to the lack of initial "push" from <18s.

Some argue that Facebook was initially only open to Harvard students, and then only university students. That's a piss-poor argument, and here's why: that was in the past. That was before "social networking" was even a thing. It's 2011 now, and everybody and their mum uses social networking. For Google+ to open with an age restriction in place is, frankly, old-fashioned.

As for me? I can't be bothered. Nobody knows when under 18s will be allowed it, but to be honest I can't care any more. Facebook lets me share with my friends and I've never had to wait for a vaguely-worded statement. I know Google+ is cool, and I'm not saying that Facebook is better, but Google has missed the boat.

Anyone up to discuss/debate/disagree/denigrate?