The Social Democrats are seeking cross party support for legal changes to ban the commercial monetisation of the digital data of children and teens under the age of 18.<\/p>\n
The party is today tabling amendments to the government\u2019s Data Protection Bill 2018 to prohibit the use of children\u2019s data for marketing purposes.<\/p>\n
The party\u2019s co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may all agree that harvesting the personal data of children online for commercial marketing purposes is repugnant. But if this practice isn\u2019t clearly prohibited in our laws, then there is no incentive for large scale data processing companies to stop the practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe that we can trust the likes of Facebook, Google, and Snapchat to use children\u2019s data responsibly. Time and again, they have only acted to tighten privacy controls when they are caught out, or in response to massive public pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not alleging that anything they did, or are currently doing, is illegal. But that is at the core of the problem. These companies may stick by the letter of the law, but their sole concern is their bottom line.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why we are tabling amendments to the Data Protection Bill\u00a02018 at its committee stage hearing today. Firstly, we would raise the digital age of consent from 13 to 16 to ensure parents retain a right to decide what platforms are appropriate for their kids to access. Secondly, we would prohibit the use of children\u2019s online data for commercial marketing purposes by banning the practice of \u2018profiling\u2019 for under 18-year-olds. I hope that my colleagues in other parties will support our amendments to put in place practical protections for children and teenagers online.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
2 May 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Social Democrats are seeking cross party support for legal changes to ban the commercial monetisation of the digital data of children and teens under the age of 18. The party is today tabling amendments to the government\u2019s Data Protection Bill 2018 to prohibit the use of children\u2019s data for marketing purposes. The party\u2019s co-leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,11,8,7,264],"tags":[355,178],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childcare","category-health","category-latest-news","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall","tag-data-protection-act-2018","tag-deputy-roisin-shortall-td"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n