Balancing kids’ online safety with privacy rights

In a nutshell

The Privacy Commissioner is conducting a comprehensive consultation on age assurance technologies, seeking input from relevant stakeholders. Recognizing the complex nature of age assurance tools, the CBA’s Privacy and Access to Information Law and Children and Youth Law Sections have each shared recommendations aimed at keeping children safe online while respecting their privacy rights.

Age assurance can restrict young people’s access to harmful content and direct minors towards age-appropriate online services. The CBA Sections recommend that the two types of restrictions contemplated in privacy regulations and design — access to content vs a content provider’s use of a user’s private information— be treated separately. That’s because they raise different privacy issues. Protecting minors’ rights should not be conflated with the obligation of organizations to protect their personal information

Age assurance’s impact on privacy and other rights

The Privacy and Access Section highlights that privacy is crucial to facilitating other fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression. For its part, the Children and Youth Law Section writes that age assurance can protect minors’ right to life, liberty and security, while safeguarding them from preventable harms like luring, sextortion and exposure to child sexual abuse.

Limiting data collection

The CBA agrees with the OPC that the collection of personal information should be limited to what is necessary for identified purposes, and only in situations posing a high risk to the best interests of young people. “When assessing the appropriateness of data collection, the impact on individual and community privacy and other rights should be carefully weighed against the potential benefits to children and youth associated with these measures,” the submission reads.

Proportionality and rights-based focus

The CBA submission agrees with the OPC that requiring the use of age assurance technologies should be proportionate to the level of risk to young people’s safety online. It also notes that “objectively determining what content is harmful to youth or other groups is extremely difficult and subject to political agendas of the time.” These may not align with their Charter rights or best interests, their freedom of expression or their right to access diverse information sources. Discussions on this topic should remain politically neutral and focused on the rights and best interests of young people.

Use of AI

On the use of artificial intelligence to guess at the age of internet users, the CBA submission cautions that since Bill C-27/AIDA is still pending in Parliament, Canadian organizations are operating in an AI regulatory vacuum. The OPC has a critical role to play in preventing the implementation of “AI systems that process highly sensitive personal information to deny individuals access to services and public content,” particularly when rules for responsible AI use are still in development

Read the submission.