In a Declaration adopted on Wednesday 28 April and published on Thursday, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe calls on member states to strengthen the protection of children’s privacy in the digital environment and focuses on the risks related in the context of the pandemic.
Children’s health data and data collected in educational settings should be subject to “increased vigilance” to “minimise potential adverse effects, including the public identification of a child as a Covid-19 carrier”, it says.
At the same time, the Committee of Ministers recognises the benefits of online tools (distance learning and contact with relatives) and calls for the digital divide between children to be reduced.
It also recalls the risks of the internet (sexual exploitation, discrimination, harassment, etc.) and calls for “a high level of digital literacy” among children, as well as among parents.
It also calls for the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Convention 108+ (the modernised Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Processing of Personal Data, which has so far been ratified by 10 of the 47 member states), for the inclusion of children’s rights in the digital environment as a strategic priority of the Council of Europe and for inter-state cooperation in the face of the risks associated with artificial intelligence.
Link to the Statement: https://bit.ly/2PB0O2g (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)