There are plenty of online resources regarding this information that don't require young people to interact directly with random older people who may or may not be acting in good faith. All of what you described, with the exception of online interaction, is available without placing children and teens in a place where they can be groomed or exploited by bad faith actors.

As for the other side, middle aged adults have no need to be directly interacting with teens and younger that they met online. There's no benefit for those individuals and too much room for exploitation to occur without moderation.

I don't see a situation where the benefits outweigh the risks for teens and children interacting with random adults online. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here.