Lying can be seen in both forms of good and bad behaviour, it just depends on the circumstances or the situation the person is in themself.If you are going to lie about silly things like: Santa Clause is real, or if you put your tooth under the pillow the tooth fairy is going to come and give you some money or even situations when someone so close to you is very ill, you would tell them that they are looking better even though they may not. In these types of situations, lying is not hurting or harming anyone, it is making people happy instead, so I personally think that by lying in these types of situations is acceptable.
The bad types of lying that I don't think is acceptable from people is when your lying about something which is serious, for example: in situations when people cheat, and when they get caught in the act they have excuses such as "She's/he's my mate!". Also, another example where lying is bad is when people have to do something but they couldn't be bothered so they make up a pathetic excuse, I don't see why they have to lie, if they just tell the person the truth, isn't that better?
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=287&id=1485
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/lying/lying_1.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7901944.stm
