A children’s rights perspective on privacy and data protection in the digital age : a critical and forward-looking analysis of the EU General Data Protection Regulation and its implementation with respect to children and youth

This doctoral research focuses on a critical legal analysis of the child’s right to privacy and data protection in the digital environment. In light of recent legal, technological and social developments affecting children’s lives, the project investigates whether there is a need for a re-conceptualisation of those rights. To achieve this aim, the project has monitored the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation with regard to the processing of children’s personal data since 2017. Specifically, it focuses on the GDPR requirements associated with the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, profiling of children and the potential of data protection impact assessments. The GDPR provisions are evaluated from a children’s rights perspective rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The research identified gaps, legal uncertainties and unintended consequences in the existing GDPR framework in relation to the processing of children’s personal data and considered the potential for the GDPR’s implementation to contribute to and maximise the realisation of different children’s rights in the EU.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Embargoed