VPN companies and data brokers have a financial incentive to lobby for intrusive age-verification and restrictions, and prudish politicians are conveniently present in every political system. The porn lobby is powerful, but it seems they've been losing this battle recently. Or maybe they're cutting deals with the data brokers, who knows.
Reminds me of when my buddies discovered our friend’s YouTube account… He only had one public playlist, and it was 100% full of softcore porn. Nothing else. It was all softcore porn. We gave him a pretty good ribbing for that one, and still make a point of reminding him that better porn sites exist every time it comes up.
I feel like reddit and YouTube are completely different leagues when it comes to porn... Porn is the only reason I haven't deleted my last reddit account. YT doesn't even really have real porn...