these are just bad arguments all around, including gov't with this upload id crap. Why aren't we making internet 18+? The only unrefutable answers I get are just downvotes which is ok I guess, sort of validates my point because there's no reason for kids to get unrestricted internet access and downvotes are easy.

I'm not sure anything will work very well.

First of all, would we restrict all internet access, or just access to certain known sites and VPNs, letting everything else through because it's too insignificant even if it technically might merit being blocked for kids? I don't think a global internet block for minors is a good idea.

On wired internet, restricting access for devices that aren't clearly tied to individual users is problematic. Imposing age verification overhead on anyone who runs a network is unacceptable and unworkable. Locking non-mobile devices to individual users, in order to have mandatory software that blocks or sends age signals to the ISP, is also unacceptable and unworkable.

For mobile devices, maybe. There's a privacy problem if it's required for sim cards to be paid using credit cards, but if we do that, or if that's already effectively the case, I think it's fair that anyone who has an active credit card should be permitted on the "adult" internet. For multi-line accounts, we could make it a crime for the account holder to misrepresent age of the user of a line, i.e. to claim they're an adult when they're really a minor. Not very different from minors and cigarettes. It's not universally illegal for a parent to supply them, but it is in some places, and it should be.