User blog comment:Semanticdrifter/Updates to COPPA/@comment-5430083-20130816220721/@comment-1216259-20130820021031

I guess that's up to you, but I know that when I was 10-12, I got frustrated with the amount of things online that I just couldn't do because there was some arbitrary 13 or older cutoff. You can't control your own age. It's not like you can age yourself up just to agree to the terms. Even if you want to agree to everything else, there's this one thing blocking you that's not your fault at all.

And then, when you do get in, you eventually find people who self-report that they're 30 or so who are incredibly irresponsible internet users. So, it's like, "What gives? Why is this loser allowed here but I'm not?"

So, eventually, I lied. And it didn't change anything. No one even knew. The world's funny that way. One way I heard it summed up was, "We all violate the law in small ways. Some of us download music, some of us smoke pot, & some of us jaywalk. If it's not dangerous, we'll find ways to make our lives more convenient." There's probably no one who can go through life following every moral rule. I'm no longer on that site, but I wasn't banned, I just left one day because I didn't like it there. Not sure how old I was, probably around 15.

Now that I'm 21, I still have no idea what those rules are supposed to do. Back then, I stumbled across gross porn, I ran afoul of trolls, I argued with mods & just plain old ignorant internet types, most of it didn't affect me, & some things I'd say made me more able to handle problems when they arise.

Now, it's easy to say, "Well, they're lying, & that's terrible." Effectively, most people lie about the terms of service. Few people even read them before they hit "agree." So I don't think it's quite right to single out child users for that.

Now, I'm not saying, "Disregard the Terms of Service, rules mean nothing," or anything like that. I'm just trying to put things into perspective.