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<p>Most web sites will only allow individuals age 13 and over to sign up because of federal law - [COPPA</a> - Children’s Online Privacy Protection](<a href=“http://www.coppa.org/]COPPA”>http://www.coppa.org/) – </p>
<p>I know my daughter was setting up accounts at various places at age 11, simply lying about her age. That was years before facebook came along – Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school – but there were other sites that she was interested in. She also had independent email addresses set up via services like hotmail, and could check her email or post to online web sites from computers at her school. Again – years before we had the present technology, like smart phones – back when getting on the internet meant finding a workstation with a dialup connection.</p>
<p>I do think that the California law might run afoul of the existing federal law. I’d point out that it is also very difficult to ascertain where a user is coming from. Depending on the service they used to access the internet, their IP address may not accurately reflect geographic location. So as far as the under-18 thing, I think California is treading into an area where Congress has already weighed in with a somewhat different viewpoint.</p>