‘Sharenting’: The Forgotten Children of the GDPR

The exponential growth of the internet and social media use in the recent past followed by a widespread increase of the scale, scope and sharing of information has impacted greatly on the concept of privacy. This growth has been accompanied by innumerable duplication and storage in perpetuity of personal data. While debates surrounding the protection and safety of social network users, in particular minor users have emerged as a matter of concern, there has been minimal focus on the privacy of minors, in particular, those minors who are the subject of ‘sharenting’ which is defined as ‘the online posting of images and data of children’. The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 was designed to give more robust protection and rights to all individuals, in particular children, who were recognised as being particularly vulnerable. The GDPR, however, in seeking to address the security and safety of the private identity of minors who engage in social networking, places the oversight of minors’ digital privacy into parental hands, regardless of their digital competency. This hastened attempt to guarantee minors’ online safety failed to address the privacy of all minors, in particular those minors who are the most vulnerable members of our society and who have an increased online presence and exposure to danger as a result of their parents’ online networking.