Kalshi has always operated under a straightforward age rule: 18 and older, no exceptions. Federal regulations through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission set that floor, and the platform has long required government-issued ID during account creation to enforce it. But as Kalshi has grown into one of the more mainstream corners of financial markets, so has an uncomfortable reality. Some users under 18 have been finding their way in anyways, and the company's standard verification process has not always been enough to stop them. The company announced this week that it is taking meaningful steps to address that gap. These are not cosmetic tweaks. Kalshi's new approach targets the most common method underage users have used to get around the platform's existing controls, and it comes alongside a broader regulatory conversation that is pulling the entire prediction market industry into closer public scrutiny.…