User blog comment:DaNASCAT/Technical Update: January 15, 2013/@comment-207.237.168.45-20130124221252/@comment-20644-20130125171931

Legally speaking, you're correct. As a practical matter, however, COPPA does prevent us from allowing users under the age of 13 to have an account. Yes, COPPA says there can be parental permission to allow it, but that requires parental permission for every single account that's registered. It also requires proof of parental permission such as a driver's license or credit card number from the parent for every single account someone wants to register. You can understand what a nightmare that would be to maintain, which is why our Terms of Use (and the terms of many other large websites, such as Facebook) prohibit users from having an account if they are under 13.

At the end of the day, what COPPA says is relevant to Wikia, not to our users. What's relevant to users is the Terms of Use, which says that you must be at least 13. Let's leave it at that. : )