It's really important to make sure the 16 year olds that are about to get the vote in the UK remain uninformed about what's going on in the UK and the wider world - we don't want them to start voting the wrong way now, do we?
How is age verification going to make it any better?
The internet is already segregated by age groups. The kids are on tiktok and discord, snapchat. You're not talking to any of them on HN or even Reddit.