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We're considering connections analogus to Facebook friendships, not currently open lines of communication. The mother, having lived a long life, likely knows hundreds of people in the village and the next few over (several of whom have moved to a number of different cities, a few quite far), so her son doesn't automatically tack on a degree of separation.

Not the point.

All it takes is one real example and you add to everyone.

IE a remote mother who has had a child is an automatic + one.

A 13 year who's been born remote and has a child remotely is plus two.

I could imagine a child this age only having ever met village members somewhere creeping off to have a baby.

Facebook is cheating by averaging.

It's an average, not a maximum.

But that's cheating, isn't it? I'm quite sure the quote the article starts with that mentions six degrees means that that is the maximum.

To be realistic, too, the original "six degrees of separation" did not take into account this international context.

Yes it did. "Gondolier from Venice" is right there in the article.