With more than 500 million users, the social media website Facebook is one of the most popular sites on the web. Those 500 million users include young and old, though a person is supposed to be no less than 13 years of age and have a registered email address.

But the social media giant is not exactly asking for social security numbers to protect themselves from anyone not telling the entire truth. So authenticity can be lost.

An age debate recently sparked after First Lady Michelle Obama said her two daughters will not be surfing social networking sites any time soon.

"I'm not a big fan of young kids having Facebook. It's not something they need," said Mrs. Obama on NBC's Today Show.

The First Lady's oldest daughter, Malia, is 12-years-old.

Myrtle Beach child therapist Christopher Galton says parents are on a slippery slope when telling children they might be too young to be on Facebook.

"You can't tell a child they can't have something and not expect them to not want it even more," said Galton.

Getting an email address is as simple going to another of world's most popular websites - Google - and signing up for a Gmail account. There's no suggested age limit for email, leaving the window open for anyone to set up an account.

A recent Pew Center survey found 93% of 12 to 17-year-olds are online and 73% of them use social media sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Galton says if a parent believes a child is too young to be on a social media website, the parent should sit down and talk to the child about why he/she wants to be logged on.

"It might be some deeper issues for the reasoning why the child wants to be on Facebook," said Galton, "Whether it be social issues, issues at school, or issues at home."

Galton stresses each child is different and parents must be able to gauge the maturity of the child and whether they'd be able to handle a social networking account responsibility. However, Galton admits that, in his belief, anyone under the age of eight is most likely too young to be online.

How old do you think someone should be? Answer that in the poll and then leave your thoughts below.