Children, the media and the right to privacy

All of us are passionate about retaining our privacy – why then is the situation any different for children and young people?

In recent years, privacy rights have been inexorably moving up the political agenda. Yet the privacy rights of children have rarely received the same attention. In arenas such as the media, social care settings, schools and the courts, we are seeing an erosion of children’s privacy rights with little time taken to stop and think about the negative impact various measures may have on children and young people’s day-to-day lives.

Threats to the privacy rights of children and young people are perhaps most obviously played out in the media. Children are very much present in media coverage, with many of the challenges facing them articulately covered. However, there is increasing concern among NGOs, international bodies and of course children and young people about the distorted image of children that appears in the media; the most obvious examples of this are articles exposing children and young people in breach of their ASBOs to shame, with little regard for the negative impact this may have on the individual child or family involved. The Government continues to actively advocate publicising ASBOs, simply noting that such publicity does not have to be negative, ignoring the reality that the lack of reporting restrictions makes it disproportionately so. It shows little regard for the privacy rights of children. Further concerns have emerged with new measures outlined in the Improving Schools and Safeguarding Children Bill to open the family courts to the media – potentially allowing coverage of issues that are highly personal and sensitive for children and young people. What of other, less intrusive ways to achieve transparency in the family courts?

CRAE believes two things must happen to begin to address threats to children’s privacy rights. Firstly, the Government must review its own legislation and policies in order to desist from inadvertently (or deliberately) promoting this distorted picture of our children, and from eroding children’s privacy rights where there is no imperative to do so. Secondly, by taking a fair and responsible attitude to their reporting, the media must play its part in encouraging politicians to develop genuinely constructive policies to help children and young people achieve their potential, instead of defaulting to the easier job of negative reporting.

But protecting children’s privacy is more complex than this – threats do not arise solely in the context of the media. National information databases, such as ContactPoint and the National DNA Database, are being used by the Government to exploit advances in new technologies with little view as to the impact they may have on children’s lives – infringing on children and young people’s privacy rights like never before. Such databases may breach human rights law and are often erroneously viewed as a “solution” to the problem of children and young people, whether that problem be child protection, anti-social behaviour or crime. Yet there is little evidence that this is the case, and precious little real justification for such “surveillance” of children and young people.

Sam Dimmock, CRAE’s head of policy and public affairs, says: ‘Ensuring powerful protection of the privacy rights of children should be a driving force for all governments, and for all those in contact with children and young people. Their particular developmental needs demand that we give this the highest priority when any measure, law or policy is being considered that may limit, or at worst violate, children’s privacy. Children and young people have told us they are concerned about the integrity of the information held about them and with whom it may be shared; even more worrying is the realisation that few children know the extent of information that is held, thus severely compromising their ability to challenge public and private authorities if their privacy rights are disregarded.’