If they ask your age, tell them you're under 13. But I agree, it shouldn't just apply to children.
If you tell them you're under 13, you might have to prove that you have gotten your parents permission by having them register with a credit card number. Now you've given them your real address! Of course, the site won't mind, because now it can sell your real address to a direct marketing company.
Just because they can't stop criminals from defrauding Americans in foreign countries, does that mean they shouldn't attempt to stop criminals in the US? I don't think that we should give up trying to solve a problem just because we can't get a 100% solution.
Incidentally, "just move offshore" is an expensive and distracting thing for a company to do, or they'd all do it to avoid taxes and other regulations. It can be done, but it carries with it a host of other logistical and legal problems.
I think that COPPA's real emphasis is not necessarily to stop those clever youngsters who are intent on getting past the registration process by lying, but to try to get parents to at least be aware of what their kids are doing on the internet. There's little you can do about the kids who are determined to circumvent the "under 13" registration rules, but that doesn't mean you can't get some parents to know and control what information is exposed about their kids.
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If you tell them you're under 13, you might have to prove that you have gotten your parents permission by having them register with a credit card number. Now you've given them your real address! Of course, the site won't mind, because now it can sell your real address to a direct marketing company.
Incidentally, "just move offshore" is an expensive and distracting thing for a company to do, or they'd all do it to avoid taxes and other regulations. It can be done, but it carries with it a host of other logistical and legal problems.
I think that COPPA's real emphasis is not necessarily to stop those clever youngsters who are intent on getting past the registration process by lying, but to try to get parents to at least be aware of what their kids are doing on the internet. There's little you can do about the kids who are determined to circumvent the "under 13" registration rules, but that doesn't mean you can't get some parents to know and control what information is exposed about their kids.