The necessary debate on the protection of personal data of children and adolescents

The film “The Social Dilemma” is among the most talked about topics of recent weeks for exposing in a highly didactic way what happens behind our use and entertainment on social networks. But there is a lot to reflect on beyond the film.

What are the dilemmas in fact?

In a pedagogical way it shows that social networks, and much of what is found on the Internet, is no longer a great source of pastime for a true psychic and physical dependence of the population, scant that everything that is on the Internet and the way it is is not by chance, was designed to be so, to somehow, through algorithms , induce you to consume, read, listen, think and even vote for what or is being indicated.

For those who have not seen it yet, the film’s plot, poking into the wound of ethical dilemmas, revolves around the daily life of a family and the daily impacts of internet use on each member of it, and also has impactful comments from former members of technology giants such as Google, Apple, Twitter, Pinterest, among others. 

The very commentators who helped in the development of applications that are fevers among the entire population weave harsh criticism of the way these applications dominate the minds of their users and users. The documentary fulfills a very important role of opening society’s eyes to the need to strengthen the guarantees of the right to privacy, the protection of personal data and to make an attempt on social media addictions.

At times, it draws attention to the way in which these companies operate, generating indirectly negative anides and expectations in their users and users, especially in adolescents who are in a period of self-knowledge and need for social approval.

The discussion that was opened in the film, despite being shallow and not bringing any news to the experts in this area, is fundamental, even if it does not present feasible solutions to the dilemma(s) presented, or leave between the lines that a possible solution would be a “disconnection” at the global level.

When we talk about the reflections that the film brought with people who did not yet know about how these networks work, and still do not understand clearly why the concern with the protection of personal data and strengthening the right to privacy is urgent – we can say that the overwhelming majority of the population is in this scenario of understanding , we noticed that many were terrified and even decided to shut down or suspend their social media accounts.

This feeling of dread that the film brings us has to give way to the awareness of the reality that we live today and make us reflect on the profound impacts (positive or negative) of the use of the Internet by vulnerable beings and in psychological and motor development (child and adolescents).

Look at the current scenario in Brazil! The ICT Kids Online Survey – 2019, conducted by the Information and Coordination Center of Ponto Br – NIC.br, points out that 68% of individuals from 9 to 17 years old have profiles on social networks, and that  an average of 60% is allowed to practice most online activities without the accompaniment of an adult.

The fact is that protecting the personal data and privacy of children and adolescents in this context of overexposure on social networks is imperative, both because the unrestricted collection of data and information can impact their development, and because it allows the created an unrestricted and unauthorized legacy of these developing beings.

How does the absence of protection of personal data negatively impact on the lives of children and adolescents?

At first, it is good to always reinforce that processing personal data, that is, collecting, sharing, storing, etc., is not always something negative or prohibited. In fact, we progressively see how much the collection and processing of personal data in general are essential to the advancement of our society. Because of the data processing, we have more effective medicines for some diseases, more satisfactory public policies, more personalized services, among thousands of other individual and collective benefits.[1]

The great adversity, when it is a child and adolescents, begins when the collection of personal data occurs massively, clandestinely and/or in a non-transparent way, leaving aside the best interest of these developing beings.

As we will see a little later, the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data – LGPD (Law No. 13,709/2018) has as one of the main objectives to ensure the proper and legal treatment of personal data, consequently leading to the minimization of this collection, which until then occurred to the extent of “the better”.[2]

Let us think then of the consequences for children and adolescents from the perspective of data groupings about their daily habits, their preferences, health problems, school performance, difficulties and facilities, among others, all in the hands of companies with power to offer products, services, games, bring people together and offer content of the most varied.

Would anyone dare disagree that children and adolescents would never be able to imagine these consequences? Also no one disagrees that a teenager or a child will ever stop providing their personal data to get the app or game that all your colleagues are playing and that is the fever of the moment, right?

After all, what’s wrong with providing data in exchange for having numerous free services and games? Apparently none. But this data is not collected for nothing. They can be used for millions of purposes, good or bad, beneficial or harmful. This leads us to a second problem about this whole situation: the reflection that the collection of this data causes in the lives of these children and adolescents who do not even remember what data they provided 10 minutes ago on some site.

This data can used your for defining user profiles, for example, also known as profiling.[4] And this definition, which is almost never carried out by humans, is not simply a spreadsheet indicating such and such data of a person, but rather, it is about defining the type of personality of a person, the tendency that that person has to buy or want something, or to commit a crime for example, based on the study of millions of data of several people. Now imagine this technique applied to a teenager and in an identified way. In the future this profile drawn on it or would it be the same? Who would analyze this profile? For what purpose? Grant a job? Approve your entry into a university? Define whether he or she has past characteristics that could make him a possible criminal or criminal?

These are just a few of the millions of hypotheses that can be considered as the purpose of massive collection of personal data.Once again, we must not forget that children and adolescents are developing beings and are discovering themselves as individuals, and this discovery needs to be free and, from a certain perspective, with privacy.

In addition to the definition of profiling itself,this profile can be used to manipulate the attitudes to be adopted by children and adolescents. Through a relationship of direct or indirect representativeness, the child or adolescent can be easily manipulated into buying a product, adopting an ideology, adopting a lifestyle, among others. And even, through persuasive design without realizing that it is being manipulated, as we will talk later.

Given this scenario, how harmful can it be for a developing person to be manipulated without realizing it, not once, but thousands of times a day? The definition of your personality, your choices for the future will be based not on your freedom, but on various influences that are not known for sure the origin and the reason. And indirectly also the collection of data and information, such as likes, pages that they follow and network of friends accompanies other negative phenomena in the lives of our children and adolescents. We mention a few:

Deceptive persuasive design

A persuasive design can be used in a totally positive way, as in the case of a sign that directs you to the bathroom of the mall, for example. However in the digital environment this type of design is being used in a totally misleading way. How many times have you come across popups  with sayings like, “click here to have a healthy life or close and continue an unruly life”?

This type of design makes the adolescent feel like choosing something unfavorable to him or her when choosing not to proceed. It may seem harmless when thinking now, but adults and adults also feel motivated to click on something, even unintentionally.

Not to mention that this design also applied persuasive techniques that take into account the colors of the buttons, the position, among other details. They’re mechanisms that unconsciously induce our brain. These are strategies studied for years. You may escape falling into any of them, but a child or teenager does not have this same ability. And even you, did you ever buy something because a message came up saying they were “THE LAST UNITS”? And when does that watch show up with the promotion time running out? It’s no accident! It’s not always real! They’re techniques. And that influences us adults. Who’s going to tell the kids.

Perpetuation of what is placed on the Internet

In the old days, if we did something or said something unpleasant for lack of maturity, after a few weeks that fact was already forgotten by all people and life continued with new opportunities.Nowadays, there are always chances for new opportunities, but any misunderstanding committed or said, especially on social networks are perpetuated around the world.

We, as adults, are always learning daily and often change our conception of something and even verify that we had an old-fashioned thinking about a particular subject. With teenagers, this change of heart and guidelines is obviously even more intense, yet these ghosts can haunt them into adulthood.

As in the famous case of The Brazilian Georgia, in the age of adolescent, who in the year 2010 in an interview said the contradictory phrase: “It’s a p* lack of slutty”, and to this day, already an adult, the phrase circulates as a meme with your face. Georgia herself gave an interview many years later in which she shows her surprise that this fact was never “forgotten”, even if she wanted to.

Shareting  and the violation of the protection of personal data of children and adolescents by their own parents and educational institutions

In addition to the unprotection of children and adolescents as a consequence of their own attitudes, the digital age of overexposure caused adults to transform their lives into true “Big Brothers” by exposing their daily daily lives, which consequently involve the lives of their sons and daughters.

The phenomenon known as  Shareting, coming from the union of  English-speaking words share  and  parenting (caring, exercising  parental authority) is about the excessive sharing of photos, videos and posts in general that fathers and mothers make of their sons and daughters.

This exhibition, in addition to bringing insecurity to the life of the child and adolescent, also limits him in private life, without having a choice and exposes them to public judgments of all kinds by all people who accompany their intimacy.

Similarly, there are also major failures, in the case of the actions of schools, especially individuals, who seeking to disseminate their initiatives and types of services, end up exposing their students in social networks without taking into account the willingness of parents or students themselves to want to be part of such advertising. Without mentioning, the importance of carefully safeguarding all data and information of children and adolescents from school transcripts, health, facial biometrics, among others, used by these institutions during their school lives.

After all, what does the LGPD say about the processing of personal data of children and adolescents?

Since September 18, 2020, the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data (LGPD) has entered into force, which provides for the rules for the processing of personal data in the Brazilian legal system.In his text, in order to ensure the protection of children and adolescents there is a specific chapter that deals with the possibilities of processing personal data of these individuals.

According to the LGPD, as the main rule, the processing of personal data of children and adolescents can only take place in their best interest, and in accordance not only with the LGPD itself, but also with the relevant applicable legislation.

This means that the processing of personal data of persons from 0 to 18 years of age incomplete, as a rule, can only occur for the benefits of these individuals and all the guarantees and protections established in laws for them.[1]

In addition, the legislature also determined that for the processing of children’s personal data  it is necessary the specific and prominent consent of at least one parent or legal guardian. It is for the controller of the personal data to ensure that consent has been granted appropriately.[2]

With this, we take special care to ensure that the processing of said data only occurs with full and clear awareness and authorization of the parents. Companies (or individuals who perform treatment for economic purposes) should be aware of the form that will require parental consent, in a clear, transparent manner and taking into account the precautions with the child. And yet, in this case, publicly  keep information about the types of data collected, purpose, forms of use and other details.

Despite this care, the legislation was omitted by not clearly requiring the consent of parents or legal guardian for the processing of personal data of adolescents, and in anycase, the law establishes that all information related to the processing of personal data of this type of holders (children and adolescents) need to be provided in a simple and easy to understand, considering the capacity of the user or user.

Undoubtedly, having a specific chapter in the LGPD that specifically addresses the care of the processing of personal data of children and adolescents is essential to ensure their proper protection and consequently has filled some gaps in existing legislation dealing with the subject superficially, however, the LGPD is far from the complete solution to this concern.

We expect the National Personal Data Protection Authority to provide guidance and actively express itself with respect to loopholes and loopholes that may allow breaches or abuse in the processing of personal data of children and adolescents, such as bringing to public debate whether or not it would be feasible for the consent given by parents or legal guardian to be invalidated or reviewed when the individual reaches his age of majority , since something has been decided on aspects that can impact his entire life when this being has not yet had full discernment about these impacts. Or, establish detailed guidelines in the case where there are permissions in other legislation for the processing of this data.[3]

Conclusion

It is always worth reinforcing that the Internet is not a villain and undoubtedly offers a world of incredible opportunities, but it has been a long time since it is not just a free and open space for unity and exchange of ideas. The Internet is formed by people, institutions, the State, each with its interests.

All that we deal with here is care that should be adopted equally by adults, because we are also susceptible to the damage caused by the lack of care with our data and lack of concern about this topic. However, in the case of children and adolescents, vulnerability and losses can be considerably greater, since the level of maturity is completely different, such as the probability of developing a compulsion for purchases, for example, or a feeling of needing approval that consequently generates numerous disorders, from the mildest to the most serious, including criminal tendencies, in the adult life of these beings.

We need to get out of inertia! We must charge regulation that guarantees freedom of expression, technological development, as well as all the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Federal Constitution that exist so that there is freedom and democracy in our choices and in our way of life.

Access to the technologies and facilities of the digital environment should not be offered only if our privacy and personal data are made available. This access must exist without renouncing fundamental guarantees, and it is everyone’s role to ensure the healthy access of children and adolescents to the Internet.

Undoubtedly, unlimited access to all Internet content for children and adolescents is far from healthy, however, the total ban on access is also not the most appropriate solution. Today the most palpable and probably most effective solution is nothing new, it is awareness, it is education, it is the collection of entities that can benefit, but must also take responsibility.

And yes, it is our role, of all, me, you, society, state, public and private entities, in short, role of all of us to worry about the good development and protection of children and adolescents. The way they develop impacts everyone, directly or indirectly. That’s when it doesn’t impact inside our own home.

I’m not the one who’s saying this. It is worth remembering what the Statute of the Child and Adolescent says, in its Article 4:“It is the duty of the family, the community, society in general and the public authorities to ensure,  with absolute priority, the realization of rights related to life, health, food, education, sport, leisure, professionalization, culture, dignity, respect, freedom and family and community coexistence.”

Not understanding the importance of rights involving the protection of personal data, is not the same thing as not understanding about Business Law, exemplified. What I mean by this is that this theme of privacy and protection of personal data, especially in the Data Age and Society of (Des)Information that we live, is essential for us to have a dignified and fair life. And we’re affected by understanding or not understanding. Whether you like it or not.

But the great reflection we have to have and dwell on is that the big and main problem is not the company “X” collecting our personal data, and maybe selling them (Facebook made a statement after the film claiming it does not sell personal data of its users). The biggest issue that we should be aware of and attentive to is how harmful the processing of personal data can be improperly and highly maliciously, especially when we talk about children and adolescents.

These beings, between 0 and 17 years of age, are in an intense process of development. Thus, absolutely everything they experience, listen to, see, observe and feel in some way influences the adult and adult that they will become, still considering the way they present themselves to society and the way society presents itself to them. This added to the education received at home, and the education arranged in school.

It is necessary that fathers and mothers exercise parenting responsibly, consciously and openly for the moment we live today, as well as that the whole society understands its duty of care to children and adolescents. This way, we will have a better physical and digital environment for everyone. This debate should not stop here!