Nobody earns the right to give feedback by being older. You earn it by having been in their corner.

Age supplies the authority to speak and nothing else. What makes criticism land is a record of wanting the person to do well, because that is what tells them the comment is for their benefit rather than yours. Without it, even accurate feedback gets heard as an attack, and they are not being unreasonable about it. The right to be blunt is accumulated beforehand, in ordinary support nobody was scoring.

Before correcting somebody, ask what you have done lately that was clearly on their side. If the answer is nothing, do that first and wait. When you do speak, keep it short and specific.