The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has adopted a Declaration focusing on protecting children’s privacy in the digital environment and calling on Member states to enhance safeguarding measures in processing the personal data of children, notably health-related data and data collected in education settings, to minimise potential adverse effects.

The Declaration calls on Member States to ratify and implement Convention 108+ (the updated Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Processing of Personal Data), to step up efforts to promote the rights of the child in the digital environment as one of the key priorities of the Council of Europe’s Strategy for the Rights of the Child, including children’s data protection in an education setting, as well as to develop and promote critical digital literacy, youth empowerment initiatives and parenting skills. Member States should also co-operate to jointly address the risks posed by the development of AI systems and take further measures to ensure that the sharing of, access to and use of children’s data are undertaken in accordance with the child’s best interests. To read the Council of Europe’s press release in full and for a link to the Declaration, click here.