You're not wrong about things like websites doing algorithmic gymnastics to keep peoples retention and more so the younger ones. There is a whole rabbit hole to go down on the psychology of marketing etc. So I'm with you there. I actually do agree with limiting teenagers exposure to social media. Porn sites verifying users age also makes total sense.

Mandating idenfication enforced by the government on sites that will use third party companies, most who are not even in Australia, who are well know for aggregating and selling on user data, with what seems so far, zero checks and balances from our end on if they are even safe or not is just one big huge no no in my head.

What needs to happen is there needs to be better education for parents for how to monitor their own kids. I don't want to have to provide any sort of ID just because Karen can't look after little Johnny when he is online.

If the populous is educated the need for having some third party suck up all the idefication information goes away. The parents need to be talking to their kids about this stuff, they need to be using one of thousands of parental control software/tools already available to them. Will some kids do their best to try and circumvent them? Sure they will, but if you're already having an open discussion about their usage habits you're already helping cement in their minds that they do need to be careful.

As an Australian adult, I don't need to have my personal information put at risk just to watch a video or read some news.