Rachel Rose Withers

In the U.S., the restrictions on young people’s power to do “adult” things get lifted at different ages. You get to buy alcohol at 21. When you turn 18, you can vote, get married, enlist in the Army, buy a lottery ticket, and buy a pack of cigarettes. In most states, you can freely consent to sex at 16, as well as register as an organ donor.

And at 13, you can—like the rest of us poor schmucks—share personal data with websites without the authorization of a parent or guardian. Why 13? In the U.S., policymakers deemed kids younger than 13 too naïve, too vulnerable to predatory data practices to be so easily giving away their identifiable info. But what about the rest of us?