Not only do I believe that COPPA doesn't get in the way of allowing children on Facebook, and that Facebook should allow accounts for children under 13, but I think COPPA doesn't really go far enough and that such parental consent should be required until age 16.

To let kids on, though, Facebook should develop some additional protection. Implementing a would be a great start. But, Facebook should also provide controls so that only parents can , or accept friend requests on accounts for minors, or something to that effect.

In the end, Facebook is far less shady than a lot of other online destinations that kids can get to just fine without parental consent. As far as I'm concerned, I would rather have my kid safely entrenched in Facebook that out wandering the "back alleys" of the Web.