This ties in a lot with the higher level philosophical issues we discussed in After Charlie Kirk's death, teachers and professors nationwide fired or disciplined over social media posts - #93 by benm .
The concept of age verification was mostly made necessary by pornography, which was originally made legal on the grounds that it is (American) constitutionally protected speech, which is at minimum a bold claim. Speech considered “harmful” in one way or another has not always been protected, and virtually everyone understands there are limits of some kinds of harmful speech, like defamation or yelling fire in a crowded theater. Protecting pornography as a subset of your rights became a poison pill.
Most people understand there is media that is fine for adults but “not appropriate for children” due to language, themes, etc. It makes sense that you might kick this to parental responsibility. But pornography is different because it creates compulsive behavior and is especially damaging for children, especially when they are going through puberty. Children are going to be a lot more secretive and compulsive about seeking it out against their parents’ wishes if they get enough exposure early on, and for that reason I think it is a legitimate safety issue for children.
That being said, the US and especially Europe have every reason to not trust their governments for age verification. It seems like we have an actual civil liberties issue made necessary by an artificial civil liberties issues. Governments are dying for a chance to smuggle in spyware against their populations under the guise of protecting the children.
America already has limits on selling alcohol and cigarettes to children, and you can’t buy most of these products online because of how regulated they are. The history of porn online makes it seem like this would be impossible to apply to porn, but it’s definitely possible if there is a will. There are already limits against child pornography, and you could enforce it the same way, especially if you provide some alternate legal avenue.
Rather than make online age verification mandatory, take away the chief offending content.
I understand this would require some level of international involvement to achieve.