To suggest this protects children at all is the real joke.

Are you saying there is no harm to children, especially girls using social media or are you saying it will not protect enough of them?

Correct, in fact I strongly assert the benefit of being able to communicate with a global audience and participate early in the information economy far outweighs any alleged and poorly-articulated harm from the same.

'participate early in the information economy' is one way of putting it

Exempting what in my experience are the places where children are the most likely to interact with strangers make it a joke.