Last week, he was unceremoniously bumped from Facebook (a Bebo-style website populated by grown-ups) for emailing Trinity alumni, pilloried on Irish internet forum, boards. ie, by disgruntled users for daring to use the net as a political tool and was slagged off for using the hallowed teen site Bebo at his age. He is only 35.

But his first battle was within the walls of Leinster House, as Douglas . . . currently an advisor to Labour TD Mary Upton . . . singlehandedly fought with the IT department on Kildare Street to get access to sites like YouTube and Bebo.

Why all the palaver? "Because of this Bebo hysteria that it's a place for teenage suicide pacts or where teenagers inadvertently expose themselves to paedophiles, " he says. "The IT guy actually thought it was a danger to the network security."

Douglas won.

"As far as I know, I'm the only candidate for the Senate on Bebo. Bebo is definitely a freer social networking site than Facebook, " Douglas says, "but Facebook does have more mature users." Ivana Bacik, among others, has a group site on Facebook.

Maybe he should have stuck to Facebook. He got a bad reception on Bebo. "Just received a Bebo message from Stephen Douglas asking for my vote, " Little Miss wrote on Boards. ie. "Seems a novel way to canvass! Anyone else been asked for their vote yet?"

Roundtower2 wasn't impressed: "Novel? I call it a little bit too novel for a fine institution such as ours.

Keep your Bebo Internets and modern telecommunication devices where they belong . . . in the gutter." But get thisf Little Miss did an immediate U-turn: "Indeed!

That's why it shocked me to see such methods being us1ed by a candidate." Huh? Didn't Little Miss think this was a "novel" idea a minute ago?

One Bebo-ite, Daragh, wrote to Douglas: "It's bad enough having yis all knocking on my door without emailing me with this shite. Is there not some sort of privacy issue here?" Douglas advised him to simply restrict access.

There's a bit of the Ross O'Carroll-Kellys to Daragh's profile. Douglas reads it to me, affecting his best Castlerock accent. "Rugby is definately (sic) the best sport in the world, but not that league shit, just union. And soccer is definately (sic) the worst sport in the world, even more worse than bowls." That's, like, even more worse than I expected.Douglas isn't alone on Bebo. Mary Harney has several Bebo sites: She is happiest when:

"Debating, relaxing with my husband and being reelected, hint, hint! ! !" Some of her online friends are Bosco and Alf Stewart from Home & Away. I guess that one's fake.

On Facebook, where older folk are moving in for real, Douglas was banned after emailing Trinity alumni. "They disabled me for a week, " Douglas admitted.

But he's not alone. Some of those adults among the 24 million-strong Facebook profiles include Barack Obama . . . who also has a profile on MySpace, where Hillary Clinton has also holed up . . . and there are group profiles for obscure organisations like Fianna Fail.

Douglas needs a thick skin online: "You are vulnerable, but that's politics and I can restrict my profile if I want to." But hasn't venturing into this territory been one long, unpleasant online wedgy by teenage malcontents? "Or worse, " he replies, "journalists."

His Facebook profile has since been reinstated.

One online friend asks him: "Did you get slapped down for suspiciously speedy acquisition of friends?" That's the nice thing about Facebook.

Even with a few grey hairs you can be so popular.

"I can invite you to join my list of friends, " Douglas tells me down the telephone. An invitation?

Oh, how nice. However, I hear him tapping away ominously on his computer in Leinster House.

"Now, " he says. "All I need to do is poke you."