Yeah, Google's pretty much required to do this by US law though (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) - I'll leave the "think of the children" jokes to other folks.
But COPPA is a US law. There's no reason to enforce it on a kid who lives near Amsterdam.
Google's already giving you a free service. Why should Google go through all that paperwork because you didn't read or comply with their Terms of Service? These people need to suck it up and find another way for their kid to talk to his grandparents.
The main complaint of the article is that most social networks have US-centric TOS. It's not just about finding a different provider, it's that they might not be able to find a social network that doesn't enforce COPPA internationally.
Given that the data is probably stored in the US, COPPA would probably apply to any data collected outside of the US.
Actually COPPA only applies to subjects who live in the U.S., so his point is a fair one. Even so, according to Wikipedia it requires a large amount of paperwork. Although I agree developers have a responsibility to be aware of this, I think these parents have a greater responsibility not to pass this attitude on to the next generation.
The law applies to entities with any commercial presence in the US collecting any personal information from children. It makes no distinction where the children are located or where the data is stored.
Their servers are in the U.S. COPPA applies to the types of data Google stores, namely children's personal information.
COPPA is a US law that applies to US corporations. It's not enforced on the child, it's enforced on Google. The nationality and location of the child is irrelevant (legally).