Privacy Among Teenagers

The technology-driven world has forced us to depend on digital devices to make our life simple and connected. Today easy availability and accessibility have made people own devices and make their presence online through social media platforms. The late adolescent stage of life is the stage where they become independent and autonomous. It has also created a space for them to share their information online to keep up with the trend. As there is rapid growth of technology, which is easily accessed by teenagers has also resulted in privacy concerns among teenagers.  

This has also resulted in private teens becoming the victim of cybercrimes, such as cyberbullying or cyber abuse, as they disclose their private information publicly in which they’re being watched by the predators.  

Tsaaro understood this problem of teenage privacy and provided an exclusive survey report on Privacy among teenagers. It addresses the concerns such as how to protect teenagers from threats online and suggestions on how to have a healthy online ecosystem to prevent the misuse of their data.  

KNOW WHAT DATA PRIVACY IS 

In this digital era, data privacy has become a significant thing. Data Privacy refers to how a piece of information or data should be handled depending on its significance. The concept of data privacy is applied to crucial personal statements which are also known as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI). There are data management measures that are taken to safeguard the data which include moving the data online to offline, analyzing, categorizing, and securing the data against unauthorized access, anonymizing, and implementing technical measures to prevent them from being vulnerable to cyber-attacks.  

WHY TEENAGER NEEDS TO BE AWARE OF DATA PRIVACY? 

Teenagers are present on social media and sharing lots of information associated with their private life without knowing the risks involved. They must be aware of the risks and protect themselves from the potential risks. One such measure can be to limit access to their personal information on social media sites and data management can be limited through privacy settings. They can make the appropriate settings to avoid sharing more information about them, as third parties can access them for advertisements etc., Privacy for teenager is something that needs to be considered important in this technology-driven world. The awareness of privacy must be educated among teenagers, to protect themselves from data breach incidents.  

LEGAL PROVISIONS IN INDIA  

Various legal provisions in India govern privacy and children which includes,  

1. The Information Technology Act, 2000 – This was the first legislation related to technology, e-commerce, provisions related to digital data, electronic devices, and cybercrimes in India. Section 67B of the Act deals with child abuse, and it is also to be noted that “Children” means a person who has not completed 18 years of age according to this section.  

1. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 – This Act majorly specifies the procedural safeguards in the case of children in conflict with the law and the children who need care and protection. It tells about the confidentiality of the reports and the information of the children whose names, addresses, school details, and other information could lead to identifying the children, which must not be publicly disclosed in the media for the child’s interest. 

1.  Draft Data Protection Bill, 2021 – When it comes to the processing of the data of the children, the bill provides provisions to safeguard age verification and Parental consent which are to be verified before collecting the data of the children. Provisions state that the data fiduciaries have the right to process according to section 16 of the bill, but they can’t use the data of the children for any purpose as there are restrictions that are provided.  

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROVISIONS 

The following are the privacy regulations that are at the international level to deal with the protection of the personal data of children.  

1. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – It is a legal framework of the EU that deals with the regulation of the collection and processing of personal data. This provides regulations on safety, privacy, and the measures to be taken for the protection of data. In the case of children, the GDPR provides provisions that the processing of data of the child shall be legal when the child is at least 16 years old. When in cases where the child is under 16 years, it is significant to obtain consent or authorization from the holder of parental responsibility for the child.  

1. Cyber Protection of Children’s Personal Information – The Digital Protection of Children’s Personal Information is the law that was instituted by the Cyberspace Administration of China. This rule applies to minors under 14 years of age. The provisions of this Act mention that the network operators must keep up the righteousness, definite reason, and guaranteed security while gathering, and transferring the data.  

1. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act – The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 1998 is a US Federal law regulating data collection. The main aim of this Act is to protect the privacy of children by restricting online websites and commercial service operators from collecting data without the consent of the parents.  

TSAARO’S EXCLUSIVE SURVEY REPORT ON PRIVACY AMONG TEENAGERS 

Tsaaro has conducted a survey related to privacy for teenager, which emphasizes the interest in Privacy and the growing concern among the participants about the misuse of their data. In the survey, it was found that 65% of the population felt there is a need for new laws to help safeguard the privacy of teenagers which is a huge concern. The result of the survey points out the ever-increasing requirement for better measures to equip teenagers with sufficient knowledge on protecting privacy and introduce stringent laws to safeguard the data of teenagers.  

CONCLUSION  

Read our in-depth survey report on privacy among teenagers, where we have highlighted the major privacy concerns of teenagers and also the measures to be followed to protect the data of teenagers.