I get alarmed when I notice my daughter’s Facebook relationship status changes to “It’s Complicated.” She’s 12.

I get amused when some of my friends use the “What’s on your mind?” block to describe every meal they’ve eaten throughout the day. I have one friend who, for every ten meal postings, throws in a “Going to the gym” for good measure. A very smart idea.

I get annoyed when a colleague from work sends me an instant message asking me to call urgently. If it’s so urgent, why are you playing around on Facebook?

Most of all, my kids get totally humiliated when I post something on one of their friend’s walls. It creeps them out that we are using their community site. My son even suggested that I should find a Wrinkled Facebook for me and my real friends.

As a matter of fact, news from a July 2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics report shows a 513% growth in Facebook users aged 55 and older. At the same time, the study found a 16.5% drop in Facebook high school users, and 21.7% fewer college users. Interactive Strategy Labs notes that, “There have been rumors that these younger user groups are being alienated by their parents joining the service, and this data seems to prove it.”

Facebook may have shot itself in the foot six months ago when it decided to let all messages go to all of your connections regardless of context. By making the site more public, kids are obviously defecting at an alarming rate, which is not good news for anyone selling Facebook ad space to prospective advertisers. POS (Parent over Shoulder) has been replaced by POF (Parent on Facebook). With the 35-54 year olds as today’s largest Facebook demographic group, advertisers are left to pitch their products to us aging late-adopters instead of all those youngsters with disposable incomes and trend-conscious buying appetites.

To combat this infestation, there is a web site called myparentsjoinedfacebook.com, which says, “So, you finally caved. You've accepted a friend request from your Mom, Dad, crazy Aunt Ida, and your college roommate’s newly divorced mother. Well here's your chance to get back at them for taking away your public privacy. Email us … because we want to laugh at [and post] your Mom’s ridiculous Facebook status and the embarrassing message your Dad wrote on your wall too!”

For companies always on the lookout to engage younger audiences, the secret may lie in creating gated community sites that allow community members to determine exactly how private they want to be. Give the users the freedom to choose what content can be shared generally, and what should be kept between two or more connected users. If basic information like age, gender and location can be also gathered during the registration process, the attractiveness to advertisers will be increased as a result of better targeting and personalization.

Of course, this all needs to happen quickly. MySpace was eclipsed by Facebook seemingly overnight, so the next-big-thing needs to be easy, cool, viral, and must not smack of either Big Brother or Big Corporation.

I would ask my daughter for additional advice on this matter, but she’s just un-friended me.