They’re already setting up and testing out the infrastructure, which you yourself have pointed out. It’s not like New York has to have some kind of special infrastructure that’s different from countries putting in ID laws to restrict access to “adult” websites.

Age verification for adult websites is bad because they’re just going to ban minors from accessing important sexual health education information. Oh you want to learn about your gender identity? Scan your ID so we can put you on a list.

It’s okay to put someone people on a list, and it’s bad to put other people on a list. The idea that law is some Pandora’s box that we just can’t open for fear of misuse is, frankly, a liberal idea. China’s AI regulations, to my understanding, restrict companion features in general while banning them for minors, which is done with information from the Internet real-name system.