India's Child Data Protection: Why Infrastructure Outperforms Platform Bans

• India's DPDP Act mandates verifiable parental consent for children's data and bans tracking/targeted ads for minors.
• Current age verification methods, relying on self-declaration, are easily circumvented by children, creating a "fragile ecosystem."
• Effective child data protection requires solving age assurance, parental invitation, and verifying parental consent, posing significant technical challenges.
• Platform bans, while seemingly protective, can lead to blocking minors or increased collection of sensitive personal data.
• An "infrastructure alternative," akin to Aadhaar or UPI, could provide a privacy-preserving consent layer for parents to manage permissions across services.