The Dutch consumers union has called for greater legal protection of the privacy of children, including a ban on personal advertising. This follows research by the group into the EU's data protection regulation, which it found was insufficient in protecting children. The advice was presented to the Dutch data protection authority AP.
While the EU's GDPR prescribes platforms provide specific protection for children, the law is vague on what this should mean in practice, the report said. The articles on protecting children, parental authorisations, and the requirement for platforms to make clear what personal data they collect and how they use it are "entirely insufficient", according to the Consumentenbond director Sandra Molenaar.
In most cases the requirement for parental permission to access a site or app is easily evaded. Furthermore, children cannot be expected to understand what the consequences will be from authorising use of their data.
The report looked at how popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Youtube operate. All of them profit from profiling children with personalised advertising, according to the union. This is not compatible with the specific protection prescribed by the GDPR, Molenaar said.
The union would like to see profiling of children banned. While general advertising of products that may interest children is possible, they should not be the subject of personal targeting based on their data. The AP and its EU counterparts should develop the necessary legal amendments, the union said.
