Doesn't that depend on the implementation?
Don't get me wrong, I am also highly skeptical about governments or businesses using means like age verification to pursue an agenda of broadly restricting access to what should be free information - but I also see the current state of major social media platforms as deeply harmful to society, and I do think it would be better if young teenagers did not have access.
And which implementation of age verification would not cut off from the "restricted" side (including the "adult" part, i.e. exactly the part for the kids) of the Web the Normal People? Those that say "if my privacy is suspected to be impacted I will adoperate to cease life on Earth". I am not aware of a practical system that warranties privacy while performing age verification.
And: the implementation, "doing it right", should be the chief point of debate. Not the vile "for the kids", that already denounces that the proponents are scum. (Everyone is capable of pointing to a problem: adequate good /solutions/ are all that can exist for administrations.)
> deeply harmful to society
So are knives, and both forbidding cutlery to minors and impeding adult access to cutlery are signs that some societies are finished and requiring cessation.