Submission to the Department of Justice and Equality on the Age of Consent for Digital Media

The Children’s Rights Alliance welcomes the opportunity to be consulted by the Department of Justice and Equality on the GDPR and specifically on the age limit below which children require parental (or guardian) consent to sign up to online services that collect or process personal data.

The Department of Justice and Equality has sought views specifically on the age under which children require parental consent to sign up to digital services (referred to as ‘the digital age of consent’) involving the collection or processing of their personal data at 16. Under the Regulation, Member States have discretion to introduce national legislation setting this limit at any age between 13 and 16.

The Children’s rights Alliance is of the view that the establishment of an age of digital consent will require a delicate balancing of the rights of the child, in particular the rights to participation and information with the rights to privacy and protection. We recommend that Ireland sets the age of 13 as the digital age of consent, rather than 14, 15 or 16 for the reasons set out in this paper.