Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer

Children’s Privacy in Lockdown: Intersections between Privacy, Participation and Protection Rights in a Pandemic

Abstract

Children and young people throughout the world have felt the effects of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and the decisions made in response to the public health crisis, acutely. Questions have been raised about adequately protecting children’s privacy, as schooling, play and socialising went almost exclusively online. However, due to the historical lack of children’s rights being embedded throughout decision-making processes (including important participation rights), the effects of the increased surveillance as a result of the pandemic have not been thoroughly considered. This article pursues three objectives. First, it seeks to develop the literature on the enabling aspects of privacy for children in relation to education and play. Second, it seeks to expand the discussion on the exploitative risks endemic in not protecting children’s privacy, including not only violent harms, but commercial exploitation. Third, it suggests some policy responses that will more effectively embed a children’s rights framework beyond the ‘parental control’ provisions that dominate child-specific data protection frameworks.

Published: 2021-05-04
Pages:18 to 34
Section: Roundtable: Privacy and Pandemics
How to Cite
Archbold, Lisa, Valerie Verdoodt, Faith Gordon, and Damian Clifford. 2021. “Children’s Privacy in Lockdown: Intersections Between Privacy, Participation and Protection Rights in a Pandemic”. Law, Technology and Humans 3 (1):18-34. https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.1803.

Author Biographies

The University of Melbourne
Australia Australia

PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

London School of Economics
Australia Australia

Postdoctoral Fellow in Law, London School of Economics and affiliated postdoctoral researcher at the Law and Technology research group, Ghent University and at the Centre for IT and IP Law, KU Leuven. 

The Australian National University
Australia Australia

Senior Lecturer in Law, ANU College of Law, The Australian National University, Director of the interdisciplinary International Youth Justice Network and Associate Research Fellow of the Information Law & Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London.

The Australian National University
Australia Australia

Senior Lecturer in Law, ANU College of Law, The Australian National University, and Associate Research Fellow of the Information Law & Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London.

 

Open Access Journal
ISSN 2652-4074