You don't have to invoke some sort of conspiracy, the western liberal world is deeply interconnected and its all in the open, you just never hear about any of it. Nothing is secret, they don't have to hide anything there is nobody that would tell anyone. You also shouldn't make the mistake to separate or governments from private interests, they are identical that's the whole problem to begin with.
In 2021 the WEF launched the Global Coalition for Digital "Safety" [1] it includes Google, Meta, Interpol, and any neoliberal goul you can imagine. The push for universal digital identity cards is much older ofc. like (eIDAS 2.0) in the EU [2]
Meta and TikTok already developed AI based age estimation tools into their platforms, then lobby to have have laws passed accordingly. See this from 2023 [3]
There are also companies that offer these sorts of services pushing legislation, how else are they gonna justify their hundreds of millions in valuation? (Like yoti [4] or Clearview ai [5])