Honestly? Yes. I think people should be decent about pointing out when someone is wrong regardless of their age. But FR’s community doesn’t tend to do that. The general reaction to someone doing something stupid hasn’t been to take them aside and explain why what they said is hurtful/stupid/dangerous. FR community has a tendency to just attack people mercilessly, and it doesn’t actually make anything better. It’s just a way for people to feel smug and self-righteous.
(There are definitely some cases where people refuse to listen and keep doing shitty things after it’s been pointed out to them, but this isn’t one of those cases.)

The reason the “nearku is a minor” thing matters is because of the accusations that nearku was misleading minors. Many of nearku’s accusers were taking the “we must protect the minors!” approach. Therefore, nearku’s age is relevant.