> Should the age of the asker temper our answers?

It's nice if it does. It's perfectly all right to take age into consideration, and to treat a teen with much more patience than a thirty-something claiming to be a professional programmer. I personally *will* slam the latter with a comment if they can't be bothered to look in the damn manual; I'll be much more tolerant with a twelve-year-old. 

However, nobody is *obliged* to treat young people differently. It's a professional community and JNK's quote catches it perfectly: *If you want the advice of professionals, you need to abide by their rules.* 

If you don't add age information to your profile, you're going to be treated like an adult, and a minimum level of competence of maturity will be expected.