Here is my thought on that: Some species of age verification is coming everywhere, like it or not. (U.S. Federal is in the works.) And at some point it become impractical to avoid it, at least if you want access to the modern internet.
It is always better to set the standard than to have someone else’s standard thrust upon us.
Therefore it would be better if, say, linux engineers preemptively design and implement the specification, to ensure that it does not overflow its bounds, to ensure it works sufficiently as required (so it doesn’t spawn worse), and to ensure it protects privacy as much as possible.
Become the standard, to limit what this can do.
Don’t wait until it’s “Microsoft did it this awful way, therefore that is now the standard that holds up in court.”