Privacy of a Child in the Digital Environment: New Risks Unaddressed

  • Natalya Kravchuk Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Keywords: human rights, rights of the child, right to privacy, digital environment, parents, sharenting, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Abstract

Digital technologies have brought with them new possibilities for exercising and protecting human rights; however, their potential for violations of human rights has also grown exponentially. Use of ICT influences the daily lives of adults, but their impact on children is even greater, as the risks of harm they face are now mediated and exacerbated online. The importance of children’s right to privacy has manifested itself anew in the context of digital technologies. In addition to concerns about safety, there are other considerations such as data processing and the “digital footprints” created by children themselves. Parents have traditionally been considered the primary agents for guidance and support of children’s rights online as well as for the protection of their children, but they are now seen as their children’s main publicity agents. Nevertheless, the problem of “sharenting” remains unaddressed at both the national and international levels. Measures developed to protect the privacy of the child follow a paradigm of rendering support to parents without stressing their obligation not to disclose information about their child. The General Comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2021 reflects this approach. Its stance demonstrates the power of traditional perceptions that reinforce seeing the child as an object incontestably cared for and ruled by their parents This precludes consideration of parents’ online activities as potentially harmful to their children and also impedes the development of norms and remedies for protecting the right of the child to privacy against infringements by their parents.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Natalya Kravchuk, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Senior Researcher, Candidate of Sciences (Law)

References

Altun D. (2019) An investigation of preschool children’s digital footprints and screen times, and of parents’ sharenting and digital parenting roles. The International Journal of Eurasia Social Sciences, vol. 10 (35), pp. 76‒97

Atkinson L. (2018) Interpreting the child-related provisions of the GDPR. The Communications Law, vol. 23, no.1, pp. 31‒32.

Autenrieth U. (2018) Family photography in a networked age. Antisharenting as a reaction to risk assessment and behaviour adaption. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The

Challenges for Families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom Press, pp. 219–231.

Balajanov E. (2018) Setting the minimum age of criminal responsibility for cybercrime. The International Review of Law, Computers and Technology, vol. 32, no.1, pp. 2–20.

Bessant C. (2018) Sharenting: balancing the conflicting rights of parents and children. The Communications Law, vol. 23, no 1, pp. 7‒24.

Сoccoli J. (2017) The challenges of new technologies in the implementation of human rights: an analysis of some critical issues in the digital era. Peace Human Rights Governance, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 223–250.

Damkjaer M. (2018) Sharenting = good parenting? Four parental approaches to sharenting on Facebook. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the

Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom Press, pp. 209–218. The Communications Law, vol. 23, no.1, pp. 25‒30.

Lim S. (2018) Transcendent parenting in digitally connected families. When the technological meets the social. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom, pp. 31–39.

Livingstone S. and Byrne J. (2018) Parenting in the digital age. The challenges of parental responsibility in comparative perspective. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The Challenges

for Families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom Press, pp. 19–30.

Livingstone S. and O’Neill B. (2014) Children’s rights online: challenges, dilemmas and emerging directions. In: S. van der Hof, B. van den Berg and B. Schermer (eds.) Minding Minors Wandering the Web: Regulating Online Child Safety. Berlin: Springer, pp. 19–38.

Macenaite М. (2016) Protecting children’s privacy online: A critical look to four European self-regulatory initiatives. The European Journal of Law and Technology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1–26.

Morgan A. (2018) The transparency challenge: Making children aware of their data protection rights and the risks online. The Communications Law, vol. 23, no.1, pp. 44‒47.

Naab T. (2018) From media trusteeship to parental mediation: The parental development of parental mediation. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the

Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom Press, pp. 93–102.

Ogrodnik-Kalita A. (2022) Protection of the child’s right to privacy in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the General Data Protection Regulation and Polish law. In: E. Marrus and P. Laufer-Ukeles (eds.)

Global Reflections on Children’s Rights and the Law: 30 Years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York: Routledge, pp. 171–181.

Oswald M. et al. (2017) Have «Generation Tagged» lost their privacy? University of Winchester: Centre for Information Rights. Available at: https://cris.winchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/356432/826826_Oswald_GenerationTagged_original.pdf (accessed: 4.01.2022)

Phippen A. (2017) Online technology and very young children: Stakeholder responsibilities and children’s rights, The International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, vol. 5, no.1, pp. 29‒32.

Clark L. and Brites M. (2018) Differing parental approaches to cultivating youth citizenship. In: G. Mascheroni, C. Ponte and A. Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom Press, pp. 81–89.

Schreiber A. (2014) Family-based rights in privacy and other areas of law — an Israeli perspective. The International Family Law, Policy and Practice, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 13–27.

Steinberg S. (2017) Sharenting: Children’s privacy in the age of social media. Emory Law Journal, vol. 66, pp. 839–884.

Trajkovska M. L. (2015) Privacy, freedom of expression and the Internet. In: Essays in Honour of Dean Spielmann. Oisterwijk: Wolf Legal Publishers, pp. 335–342.

The Privacy, Protection of Personal Information and Reputation (2017) UNICEF Discussion Paper: Children’s Rights and Business in a Digital World. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/csr/files/UNICEF_CRB_Digital_World_Series_PRIVACY.pdf (accessed: 08.04.2022)

Van der Hof S. and Lievens E. (2018) The importance of privacy by design and data protection impact assessments in strengthening protection of children’s personal data under the GDPR. The Communications Law, vol. 23, no.1, pp. 33‒43.

Wildhaber L. (2004) The European Court of Human Rights in action. The Ritsumeikan Law Review, vol. 21, pp. 83–92.

Williams K. (2003) On Controlling Internet Child Pornography and Protecting the Child. Information and Communications Technology Law, vol. 12, no.1, pp. 3 –24.

Published
2022-07-01
How to Cite
KravchukN. (2022). Privacy of a Child in the Digital Environment: New Risks Unaddressed. Legal Issues in the Digital Age, 3(2), 73-89. Retrieved from https://lida.hse.ru/article/view/14587