Yes parental controls are horribly complex and buggy. In my ideal world we'd just do away with them entirely, and not replace them with overly restrictive laws

Yes parental controls are horribly complex and buggy. In my ideal world we'd just do away with them entirely, and not replace them with overly restrictive laws instead. As a parent I would rather spend my time actually talking with my kids about computer and internet use rather than fighting to work around these restrictive systems. Fortunately there isn't (yet!) a need to actually prove age when creating accounts in most cases. Edit: to be fair, I can imagine how they would be useful in some cases if they didn't suck so much, so I'm sympathetic to the OP. But I'd far and away take "nothing" over what we have now.