I think CoE was crap, not only the message (humanity sucks), but the execution, plot holes you can drive a truck through.
...plus, the aliens snorting kids thing...why not child labour? Drugs is a problem, but aliens kidnapping the children as child labour, heck, child soldiers, cause human have fingers and the 456 don't eh? Would have made more sense, and it's real world related, because yeah, child soldiers.
Or even, the aliens kidnapping the children for their own good, because earth is a crapshack world, well intentions, bad acts, because the children miss their parents, and it's fucked up being brought up by people that tell you your people is inferior (Aboriginal Boarding Schools in Canada, the last one closed in the 1980s, and some runaways were chained to their beds...)