alt Hacker NewsWell... Wikipedia has content that some would consider offensive or unsuitable for children. I'm not in favor of limiting any access to Wikipedia, but I'd consider it a certainty that the day would come when Wikipedia had to decide whether to implement age restrictions or try to police content. I believe that event would change it's governance and social structure in a negative way and significantly degrade it as a public resource.
Likewise, some old history documentaries have gore or nudity. I think our current content ratings systems are not as obtuse as "nipple? R rating".
>I believe that event would change it's governance and social structure in a negative way and significantly degrade it as a public resource.
This can and has already been doing even without age verification. We're way beyond government survellaince in many countries.