They lobby for because then they can collect biometrics from kids and then reject them. So they don't serve underage kids , no fines but they do get data.

If Facebook knows your precise age they can market to you "better."

They want to know all the children are 18+ to remove liability for what they do to them.

Meta has a long history of breaking the law. I have no doubts Meta will have access to the personal details once you've "verified your age". They'll know WHO you are, as accurately as possible. Can you imagine how much that it worth to Meta, history's largest harvester of personal data? A whole lot more than $2B.

Now, based on their ruthless disregard for the law, do you think they're just going to use it to sell your ads?

They are facing thousands of lawsuits related to teens and addiction because their harmful site is harmful.

Plus they are lobbying for it to be someone else's problem they are lobbying for device and OS based age verification.

1. Don't assume Meta is anything other than a state propaganda and surveillance apparatus.

2. It's onerous for upstarts, so it entrenches Instagram and Facebook.

3. Guaranteed knowledge of who everyone is, and their web browsing activities, furthers their surveillance ends.

4. If you keep people off until they're adults and then throw them in with no guidance, they'll have an even worse time. Which is good for propagandizing.

5. They get to collect biometrics from everyone, even the underaged ones who attempt verification. All the better to build panopticon, along side Clearview and Flock.

6. The Heritage Foundation wants it, and everything else on Project 2025 has been proceeding as planned with lackluster resistance, so why would this be different? (Spoiler: the next part is calling everything they don't like, such as LGBT people being visible or alive, as "harmful" and using these new surveillance tools to deal with that.)