The gist of COPPA is that you can't collect information about people under 13, without the express consent from a parent. So it's not completely against the law to have 13yo on a social network, it's just common for sites to just refuse kids altogether, mostly out of convenience.
And therefore every kid out there learns that 1) adults are stupid and coward and, 2) you should lie to them all the time, before reaching the age of 13.
This is exactly what happens. I know several 10- and 11- year olds (my gf's sister is 23 years younger) and they all lie about their age to use Facebook and Google - with the knowledge and consent of their parents/guardians.
> with the knowledge and consent of their parents/guardians.
Not coincidently that's all COPPA requires. You can run web services tailored to the under-13 set, you just need to collect parental approval for your young users. Facebook and Google don't bother with it because it's a hassle.
This is not quite correct. It requires provable consent from parents, such as a written letter. It's not surprising that online services do not go through this process.
Again, the actual effect of the law is not what's written in it. The actual effect is that internet companies (like my startup) simply ban the under-13 set. And we just register people for bicycle races!
What mentality would these children acquire? Will it be "play the game" or "fuck the system"? Will they lie, make other people lie, make everyone act as if they're honest; or would they break this grandiose lie into a million thawing bits?
Mostly "this is stupid and I'm going to sign up anyways". My daughter created her own fake Facebook accounts twice before she was 10 and has had one we allowed since she was 11. She original did it to play Farmville and the other Facebook games all her friends were playing.
She also got her GMail account locked out after Google+ launched when she innocently entered her actual date-of-birth when they prompted for it one day. This is the email account that all of her teachers expect her to have - just like all of her fellow students have.
I'm all for protecting kids' privacy, but there should be a parental override available to allow under-13 users onto services.
The gist of COPPA is that you can't collect information about people under 13, without the express consent from a parent. So it's not completely against the law to have 13yo on a social network, it's just common for sites to just refuse kids altogether, mostly out of convenience.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrens_Online_Privacy_Protec... and http://www.coppa.org/.