no amount of age verification/id controls is stopping bad parents from failing their kids, it's a pointless waste of time which ultimately opens up these kids/people to being even more vulnerable when somebody hacks their database.

if you run a business that provides some digital entertainment service to children, and facilitates their communication while using it...the only way your stopping groomers (or just generally keeping it from turning into a cesspool) is by actually paying people to moderate the chat rooms, simple as that

and, atleast in an unregulated shithole like the US...the only way they'll do that is if they end up being held liable under some class action lawsuit

small communities like this are work because the population using it is still relatively small

either way you're creating a database of people's faces. it's gonna be handled by a third party no matter what so whether you're above or below the cutoff is just a flag.