“Who the hell is the government to take away the decision whether my kids can join Facebook?”

◼ Privacy Victims by the Million: Federal Law Turns Parents and Children into Liars ... and Criminals? - The Volokh Conspiracy

A recent report by Danah Boyd and others reveals that turning parents and children into liars is a principal effect of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million kids under 13 have joined Facebook. Since Facebook prohibits kids of that age from the service, that’s 7.5 million children who lied in the signup process. And most of them got help in telling the lie from their parents. According to Boyd’s study, the vast majority of parents were aware that their children joined Facebook before reaching 13; in fact, more than two-thirds of these parents helped their under-age kids join.

That’s a lot of lying.

Now, you might ask, “Who the hell is the government to take away the decision whether my kids can join Facebook?” Actually, most parents feel exactly this way. When the study asked them who should have the final say about whether or not their child should be able to use online services, 93% chose the parents, 3% opted for the company providing the service, 2% chose the government, and 2% would leave the decision to the child.

So how did we end up with an online regime that is this intrusive, stupid, and unpopular?

It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of lobbying, and the story may help explain why we have so many stupid privacy rules. Read the rest...