My default reaction to the introduction of any age-verification for any service is the closing account. Goodbye Discord, account closed out of protest.

The second option is ignoring the verification request. Goodbye online-gaming-with-strangers on Xbox. (I see this as a positive). Same goes for Ubisoft who aggressively wanted my secret papers to verify my identity.

I've yet to come across anything I want or need outside banking or government use where age verification benefits me, or is so useful/important that I would willingly hand over critical secret documents. I've not even needed to use a VPN for anything. It doesn't mean it won't happen, but when it does, option #1 or #2 is going to cover everything.

Which circles back to the main point here - if I ignore it, then effectively I get identified as a non-adult. How does this protect anybody?

(UK-based, might not be the same everywhere)