Internet users are increasingly becoming younger. Many more young people and children are online everyday than adults and more than likely this will grow as time advances. Aside from social media sites through which they communicate and socialise, such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Facebook, children and young people use the internet to study, do homework, complete assignments, and for research; online schooling and tutoring are becoming more commonplace.
By the time they are adults, children born over the last decade will be totally immersed in a digital environment. There is no escaping this. Therefore, today, rather than restrict children’s access to technology in order to protect them, parents, and governments should be doing all that is necessary to ensure they can use it safely.
It is undoubtedly with this in mind that the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office recently published 15 design standards for internet services. Called the Age Appropriate Design Code, the rack of guidelines seeks to make the internet safer for children (under the age of 18) and places the onus to do so on data providers. There is a one-year transition period before the design code, which was released in January this year, comes into force after it is approved by the UK Parliament.
Once in force, it would require internet providers to act in the best interests of children. This would include them undertaking data protection impact assessments to ensure that the rights and freedoms of children accessing their data are not compromised in any way. Adherence to the code would also see internet providers implementing policies that take into account age restrictions and minimising personal data collection and sharing where the users are underaged, among other things. The ‘datafication’ of children is particularly abhorrent.
But the code has already been criticized for not going far enough. It is not law as the UK already has a Data Protection Act, passed in 2018, which covers online services. It is envisioned that the Act will cover the code, although those determined not to comply with it might just find lawyers clever enough to use whatever loopholes there are. Nevertheless, the Age Appropriate Design Code could prove to be just what the world needs to curb the risks present whenever children go online. Curb is the operative word here as it should be known that there is no way to completely remove all risks to children on the internet.
Any parents who disparage the code or any other similar measures, should be asked how far they would expect a government to go to protect their children. Too much government interference in digital technology could open the floodgates to all manner of restrictions that would not even apply to children. It is well known that politicians will take all manner of liberties with things they want to control if given the impetus.
Another point to note is that online dangers are much the same as those that present physically. If parents can take steps to protect their children from physical harm, or teach them to protect themselves, without completely removing them from the world and wrapping them in a bubble, then the same can be achieved on the world wide web.
It still takes a village to raise a child. Today, that village is one that should also be digital. But the first steps have to be taken by parents. The internet is no daisy-filled meadow where children can be allowed to roam at will or speak to strangers. Parents must be vigilant and always aware of what their children are accessing, viewing and learning about. Make no mistake, children are not safer because they are indoors ‘on the computer’ and since there are ways around parental controls, physical checking is required.
At the same time, data providers also have a duty to respect the rights and freedoms of children online, as do governments.
