Advocates call for privacy protections for children

Digital Rights Watch and a number of other advocates and civil society organisations have urged the federal government to urgently reform Australia’s privacy laws to ensure children are protected from surveillance and tracking by unscrupulous companies.

An open letter published by Digital Rights Watch and already signed by organisations including the Centre for Digital Wellbeing, VicHealth and Parents’ Voice argues that bold reform is the sensible next step in the Attorney General Department’s review of the Privacy Act.

According to the letter, the current state of privacy law in Australia allows data accumulation on a mass scale with few limits.

“This means that children are being taught to accept that surveillance is the price of participation in online life,” the letter states.

“It also means that young people are growing up in digital spaces that are designed for endless engagement, rather than meaningful connection, because this serves the business model by creating more valuable advertising space.”

The letter also asserts that companies are using their access to children to market unhealthy and harmful products including gambling and junk food to them. In addition, Australian children are required to spend long hours engaging with technology as part of their education with little to no privacy protections, it claims.

“A recent Human Rights Watch report found that millions of Australian children were at risk of surveillance and tracking by shadowy companies, who exploited their access to kids during periods of remote learning,” the letter states.

“For both children and their parents, there was no way to opt out. Too often, the interests of EdTech companies are prioritised over the rights of children.”

Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea said it is imperative that the Privacy Act is updated for the 21sth century, to address the potential harm caused by endless engagement, targeted online advertising, rampant misinformation and the normalisation of surveillance.

“As a parent, I worry about how my child’s data will be taken and used by all sorts of shadowy companies that do not have his best interests at heart,” she said.

“Our laws currently allow companies to create detailed profiles of children often without their consent, sometimes without their parents even knowing. Unless we have bold reform of our privacy laws, we are doing a disservice to the next generation.”

Other signatories to the letter include Salinger Privacy, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the Alliance for Gambling Reform and the Food for Health Alliance.

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