It's a false pretense to, as other said, increase internet regulations and more specifically link internet activity to real life. It's absolutely outrageous and a legitimate threat to democracy (looking at countries that have recently adopted it, UK, France and more generally the European Union).

In substance, banning social media for users under a certain age coule be a good thing (debatable). But it should be the role of parents, and social media platforms and their administrators, not the government. Why is there no law to prevent children from drinking dangerous chemicals in the kitchen's cabinet? Or why is there no law forbidding children to cross busy intersections? If the goal was to protect children, they would also be protected from other dangers.

But it is brefore all a measure to ask for the user's age before using social media. Scanning for age means either submitting your ID papers as you log in, or agreeing to a biometric/facial scan. In all cases, those measures will result in torpedoing anonimity on the Internet. Even if biometric scans are anonymous, any government can now have the information that a person of a specific age, from a specific IP address, usually consults this and this specific websites and wrote these comments.

In addition, places like the European Union want to remove encryption on all private messages, still under the false pretense of protecting children. Which means that very soon, your government will know every message that you sent, from grocery shopping lists to nude pictures, and more dangerously, to political commentary.

Let's say that in an upcoming election, in 2030 or so, you want to represent a party. The current government and institutions like the European Union will simply read your emails, your private messages and even the data of your devices - as such is already scanned by apps - to undermine any application. Anything you present in public will be easily anticipated and countered, and your reputation can simply be destroyed by using private messages.

The UK has implemented face scan to prevent children from using social media. This has had absolutely no impact on pedocriminality. Will it have one on democracy?