Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that the only way? It seems conceivable to me that you could have some sort of publicly run infrastructure that asserts your age is above some threshold without sharing your identity. So long as that system recorded no log of who asked it for assertions about whom then I can't see an objection to age verification.
> long as that system recorded no log of who asked it Two problems with this: 1. Any system which is anonymous becomes trivially abusable. A true anonymous system with no records kept means a single stolen or leaked ID could be used by everyone, defeating the system. You can try to search for and block leaked IDs but that doesn’t stop one kid from copying their 19 year old brother’s ID and using it to authorize the e…
For 2. I have sufficient trust in my society that this would be the case or would have significant negative ramifications for the parties involved. Probably not true for all countries.