Would you be against blocking messages to minors being standard practice in most games where you make an account?

I suppose I should open this by saying I haven’t played Persona 5: The Phantom X, and maybe I’m late to the party, but I read today that the game actively blocks accounts that claim to be over 18 from privately messaging accounts registered as under 18. I just had the biggest “Huh, this should probably be standard practice” moment.

I can only think of three logical concerns people might raise:

1. What if you turn 18 and all your friends are 16–17? In that case, maybe a video game private chat shouldn’t be your main method of communication—or perhaps accounts could recognize active friendships and allow messaging with users who were already connected before the age threshold.
2. Kids shouldn’t be playing age-rated games anyway, or minors could be lying about their age. To which I’d say…sure, but if you want access to 18+ features, you could choose to opt out of these protections at your own risk, rather than having no guardrails at all.
3. Predators could just make accounts registered as under 18. That’s a valid concern, but if accounts claiming to be minors are behaving inappropriately with other minors, that actually makes it easier to flag and identify those individuals. It removes the common “I didn’t know how young they were” excuse and helps platforms hold people accountable.

I’m curious to hear how everyone would feel if this sort of system suddenly became the universal standard on services like Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network.