Australia

It's a bit of a stretch to say that the government benefits from asking private companies to verify the ages of their users. Those private companies don't necessarily share their data with the government, and in most cases the information to verify ages isn't necessary useful to the anyway.

Consider TikTok for example. Users of tiktok already routinely upload videos of themselves. So the Australian government telling TikTok that they should also ask for a face photo to verify a person's age... well... I don't think the government or tiktok would really care about collecting that face photo.

Some companies might like the excuse to ask for personal information, but I think the biggest most powerful ones do not want it; because they already have the data they want, and the laws could shrink their userbase.

There is a lot of talk about "ID requirements", but I think it's worth noting that the Australian laws explicitly require that companies must provide a verification method that does not require the scan of any ID card. That's an interesting clause to include if the purpose was to allow companies to collect people's ID information.

So no - I don't think there is any secret motive to the laws. There are a lot of parents (and kids too) that believe restricting social media is a good idea; and that's what the laws are meant to do. Whether it is helpful or harmful is separate question though.