Because when you show ID to buy age-restricted things in person, nobody is keeping a record of anything. A clerk looks at your ID and that's the end of it.
Online is a completely different beast on that count.
Governments have a terrible track record when it comes to privacy. Everything from the USPS selling your info when you move, to the 2 dozen texts I got yesterday because the government sells[1] your voting records on the cheap. Maybe you don't agree but surely you at least understand why people are widely worried about a future where the government decides to sell your adult website access records to make a few extra bucks.
They should be worried. Bad governance is bad. But people do want something to be done about ease with which children can access pornography online. A solution will eventually be imposed if the industry doesn't clean things up.
I don't disagree. The problem is that the solutions being talked about have a large negative impact far wider than the problem they're intended to address.
It is the parents responsibility to raise their children.
It's not my responsibility to have to show ID(I'm a grown adult, there is no mistaking me for someone 18 and below.. though I don't think there is any such laws in any country I would want to live in. this seems to be a fairly US centric world view).
"Think of the children"? That's the argument here?
There is a big difference between storing someones credentials in a porn identification database vs showing your ID to some clerk. These things are not identical.