ID backstops exclude older teens

When age‑verification laws rely on official photo ID as a fallback, a non‑trivial cohort (here ~150,000 British 16–17‑year‑olds) will be unable to access services despite being above the intended minimum age. That exclusion both raises equity questions and pressures governments and platforms toward centralized digital‑ID or biometric checks. — Highlights an implementation‑level tradeoff: child‑safety laws can produce mass exclusion and surveillance demands, shifting debates from abstract protection to concrete access, privacy, and inequality concerns.