Children's digital privacy must be treated as critical public infrastructure in the AI era

Summary

The article argues that children's digital privacy can no longer be treated as merely a consumer issue involving parental controls and consent notices. In the AI era, children's privacy should be reclassified as critical public infrastructure — as essential as clean water, school transportation, and vaccination records. The author contends that privacy protections for children must be embedded into AI procurement, system design, and oversight from the very beginning, rather than treated as an afterthought or optional feature.