Here are the official rules for getting bumped up a level so you can message:
Get to trust level 1 by…
*** Entering at least 5 topics**
*** Reading at least 30 posts**
*** Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts**
By reading they just mean slowly scrolling by a post.
So in short, it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the point where you can message, if you follow the instructions above.