It is not an accident that this push is coming from English-speaking countries. Those are the countries where the biggest European-language social media companies are based and the leadership of those companies _want_ this legislation. It means that they can now all collect personal data from their users without having to worry about data privacy regulations or lawsuits. It also means that your personal data is being stored by every website you visit, and can be leaked or sold on from there.

The EU has -- differently from those countries -- focused on providing a (possibly, on-device) crypo-token generator, based upon possession of a bank account or government ID, that does not share any personal data with the company requesting the information. It merely confirms that the token-possessor is above some minimum age.

Still a problem, but a different problem. Feel free to discuss which is worse.