Yeah I get what you mean, the most important thing is something to talk about between yourselves and an understanding of how often you actually want to talk - is it the occasional message, or are you after a more regular contact.

I think gender isn’t relevant at all for friendships unless you’re specifically after someone who you can discuss very specific topics with.

I do think age is something that should be a slight consideration but mainly only for the under 18’s who use this - I think it’s important they know how old the person they’re talking to is so they can decide if they want contact with them. I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing for them to speak to adults online in a purely friend/mentoring kind of thing, just it’s something that does need a bit more care and consideration - it’s also only fair on the adults as understandably some may be concerned to find out they’re talking regularly with an under 18.