Legal Update: Children's rights and the internet
Kirsten Anderson
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Kirsten Anderson, research and policy manager at Coram Children's Legal Centre, examines recent guidance on balancing children's right to access information with the need to protect them from harm.
Access to information is crucial for children and young people. In order to learn, be informed, make meaningful choices and decisions and participate in social life, children must be able to access information from a range of sources, in formats that are appropriate to their age and capacities.
The internet is widely recognised as an indispensible tool for children, allowing them to access information, to communicate quickly and cheaply, and be engaged in social and political life. However, the internet can also be harmful for children; being online can expose them to significant risks, such as sexual exploitation through accessing pornographic content and "cybergrooming", or to "cyberbullying".
While concerns about child safety and wellbeing online are legitimate and understandable, a recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression highlighted the tendency of governments to introduce widespread, disproportionate and unnecessarily restrictive measures to restrict children's access to the internet. The report illustrates how child protection arguments appear to be part of an emerging pattern in which children are being used to justify restrictions not only on their access to information, but also on the rights of adults.
While in many cases, these restrictions "are rooted in a genuine, well-meaning desire to protect children from harmful information", in others, they are used to "defend discrimination and censorship"; involving the imposition of broad and disproportionate filtering and other blanket measures that restrict online communications for all.
Children's right to access information
According to article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child's right to freedom of expression includes "the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds" through a wide range of media. Their right to access information may be subject to restrictions, but these restrictions must be provided by law and be necessary for the respect of rights of others; or for the protection of national security, public order, public health or morals. This requires a balanced approach, whereby restrictions on access to information must conform to strict tests of necessity and proportionality - they must only be applied where necessary to protect children from genuine harm (e.g. sexual exploitation or violence), and the measures imposed must be proportionate to this.
Excessive measures
Of course, the internet can be both harmful and beneficial for children. According to the Special Rapporteur, introducing overly restrictive or excessive measures, like absolute blocking and monitoring of online activities, is ineffective and compromises access to the beneficial elements of new technologies. Studies have demonstrated that children can be empowered to use a range of measures to protect themselves from harm online, such as consulting friends for advice, blocking unwanted content and adopting strict privacy settings (e.g. on social networking sites), and that informed and engaged parents who discuss internet safety with their children is the strongest measure for ensuring that children are protected from harm.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that the internet be reframed as a positive resource, and one that can bring "benefits for both the individual child and society as a whole - as opposed to a negative or otherwise dangerous medium". In regulating and monitoring new technologies, including the internet, governments should ensure that children are empowered to use these technologies in a way that promotes their rights and development but also guarantees their safety, and should adopt holistic strategies, which focus on increasing the capacity of children to protect themselves online. Such strategies should ensure that parents and professionals have the knowledge and skills to support children online, bearing in mind that the level and type of access should conform to their evolving capacities.
Governments should not see child protection and freedom of expression as opposing goals. Instead, they should work towards ensuring that children are empowered to stay safe when online.
Legal Update is produced in association with experts at Coram Children’s Legal Centre ?www.childrenslegalcentre.com
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