Concerns over impact of social media on children's privacy by Winchester University academics

The rise of ‘sharenting’, YouTube families and programmes centred around broadcasting the lives of children has led to the report, entitled, Have ‘Generation Tagged’ lost their privacy? calling for young children to have an independent right to privacy.

It also calls for social media and internet companies to have a duty to consider young children’s privacy and best interests.

It follows the announcement by the government of a new Data Protection Bill which will give people a right to force social media companies to delete their personal data, including social media posts from childhood.

“As a society, we’re exposing ever younger children more and more in broadcast media and on the internet, by filming them for ‘science entertainment’ programmes and by ‘sharenting’ on social media sites,” said Marion Oswald, head of the Centre for Information Rights at Winchester University and one of the report’s authors.

“Young people may therefore grow up in a world which already knows a lot about them that they have not chosen to share. A child may grow to regret their exposure in the media. We shouldn’t put all our eggs in the basket of the so-called ‘right to be forgotten’. By the time a child is older, it may be too late.”

A further recommendation is the introduction of a Children’s Digital Ombudsman who could provide a way for children’s interests to be better represented in respect of all forms of digital publication.

The report came out of a workshop sponsored by the British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association (BILETA) in June.

The workshop explored the legal and ethical framework surrounding the portrayal of children on the internet and the privacy protections they are entitled to.

Attendees included representatives from Channel Four, the BBC, the Children’s Commissioner’s Office and academics from the universities of Winchester, Oxford, East Anglia, Sussex and Cambridge.

Helen Ryan, head of law at Winchester University and one of the report’s authors, said: “It remains to be seen what the long-term effects – both positive and negative – might be on young children of exposure in broadcast media in ‘science entertainment’ programmes.

“We argue that we should challenge the digital social norm that accepts the objectification of young children and the posting of negative comments and images where it might reasonably be expected that the child would not agree.”

The University of Winchester’s Centre for Information Rights has now launched a new study into this issue which will see researchers interview older children who were involved reality TV programmes at a young age and their parents.