Eamon Ryan
Question:19. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the actions he has taken regarding the digital age of consent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25683/18]
View answerThursday, 5 July 2018
Questions (19)
Written answers
The position is that Article 8 of the General Data Protection Regulation specifies a ‘digital age of consent’ of 16 years but allows Member States to provide for a lower age, but not below 13 years. It means that providers of information society services must make reasonable efforts to obtain the consent of the holder of parental responsibility over the child where such services are offered directly to children below the specified age threshold.
Section 31(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 specifies a 'digital age of consent' of 16 years. Subsection (3) of section 31 provides for a review of the age set out in subsection (1) within 3 years of the coming into force of the Act.
In the case of children below the digital age of consent, Article 8(2) of the GDPR requires providers of information society services to make reasonable efforts to verify that consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility over the child, taking into consideration available technology. The Data Protection Commission will be responsible for the supervision and enforcement of this provision.
Section 32 of the Data Protection Act 2018 provides that the Data Protection Commission (DPC) shall encourage the drawing up of codes of conduct intended to contribute to the proper application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with regard to the protection of children, including in relation to the manner in which the consent of the holders of parental responsibility over a child is to be obtained for the purposes of Article 8 of the GDPR.
The DPC - which acts with complete independence in the performance of its tasks and exercise of its powers - has advised that it has recently engaged with a number of stakeholders in the child protection and children’s rights areas and intends to carry out a public consultation around issues pertaining to the specific standards of data protection applicable to children and the rights of children as data subjects. This work will commence when the new school year starts in September 2018.
Arising from the consultation, the DPC will work with the industry, government and voluntary sector respondents and their representative bodies in a process to encourage the drawing up of a code of conduct to which entities which collect and process children’s data would demonstrably adhere.