Children and Online Privacy in Today’s Digital Age

Children’s lives are increasingly shaped by their digital presence. From engaging gaming platforms to interactive social media, the risks surrounding privacy, data collection, and online exposure grow every day. As guardians of their children’s digital lives, parents hold a profound responsibility to stay informed, set clear boundaries, and lead by example in the digital realm.

Age-Appropriate Access and Digital Readiness

Establishing age-appropriate access is paramount to fostering a safe digital environment for children. This involves a multi-faceted approach, integrating legal compliance with developmental considerations.

• Respect Age Ratings: Apps and platforms issue age ratings based on legal compliance, such as COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and also on developmental readiness. These ratings must be adhered to, even when peer pressure challenges that stance. The European Commission’s recent guidelines, published in July 2025, emphasize a “safety and privacy by design” approach for platforms accessible to minors, which includes robust age assurance methods (European Commission, 2025a).

• Emotional Readiness Over Numerical Age: Reaching the required age for a platform doesn’t automatically mean a child is prepared for its online content or interactions. Parents are encouraged to assess their child’s maturity level and understanding of digital complexities before granting access.

• Parental Controls: Robust tools like Apple’s Screen Time and Google Family Link should be utilized. These platforms allow parents to restrict content, set time limits for device usage, and monitor online behavior. Furthermore, the European Commission’s 2025 guidelines on the Digital Services Act (DSA) recommend minimum requirements for parental control tools, stressing the need for prompt feedback and clear information for minors (European Commission, 2025b).

Tips for Parents: Building a Privacy-First Household

Cultivating a privacy-first household is essential for protecting children online, particularly as digital interactions become increasingly complex due to evolving technologies like AI.

• Privacy Settings: Proper configuration of privacy settings on apps and platforms can prevent strangers from accessing personal information. Misconfigured applications may inadvertently expose sensitive data or private photos (Livingstone et al., 2018). The European Commission’s 2025 guidelines also recommend setting minors’ accounts to private by default to hide personal information and reduce unsolicited contact (European Commission, 2025b).

• Monitoring Tools: Filtering software can be employed to supervise social media use while simultaneously allowing for a degree of independence for the child. It is noteworthy that only 35% of Irish children surveyed in early 2025 indicated their parents or caregivers could see what they were doing online, highlighting a significant gap in oversight (CyberSafeKids, 2025).

• Ground Rules & Contracts: Establishing clear social media expectations is vital. This can be achieved through a written agreement or family contract (see template below), which solidifies boundaries and fosters mutual understanding.

• Parental Engagement: Following your child on platforms they use is recommended. This practice can build trust and concurrently keep parents informed about their child’s online activities.

• Open Dialogue: Regularly discussing their digital lives is crucial. Parents should review their child’s followers, likes, and online friends, fostering transparency and allowing for conversations about potential risks.

• Device Supervision: It is advisable to keep technology in communal areas of the home. Unsupervised device use in bedrooms, particularly at night, should be discouraged to mitigate risks; alarming 2025 Irish research indicates 82% of young children (8-12 year olds) have unsupervised access to smart devices in their bedrooms (CyberSafeKids, 2025).

• Password Protection: Children should be educated on the importance of safeguarding their passwords. Parents, for safety and support, should maintain access to all child accounts.

• AI Chatbots & Generative AI: With the rise of AI chatbots, parents must be aware that children’s interactions can impact data collection. Safeguards around AI chatbots integrated into online platforms are now recommended by the EU, and platforms are being advised to prioritize explicit signals from children over behavioural signals when using recommender systems (European Commission, 2025b). Children should also be taught about deepfakes and the need for skepticism regarding AI-generated content (CyberSafeKids, 2025).

Sharenting and the Digital Footprint

The act of parents sharing images or details of their children online—commonly known as sharenting—has raised new and significant concerns regarding children’s privacy. This practice increasingly challenges traditional notions of consent and privacy.

• Mixed Motivations: Many parents post to share milestones or to stay in touch with family and friends. However, a growing awareness of privacy concerns is rapidly shifting perceptions regarding this practice, with more parents rethinking how much they share online (Kids Central Pediatrics, 2025).

• Children’s Opinions Matter: Studies, such as that by Gotwald et al. (2024), increasingly show that children object to having their lives shared online, especially when it occurs without their explicit consent. This highlights a critical need for parental empathy and understanding.

• The Risks:
  • Digital kidnapping and impersonation are serious threats.
  • Sexual exploitation can occur through image misuse.
  • Cyberbullying from peers can result from oversharing, potentially impacting a child’s mental well-being.
  • A significant loss of autonomy over their personal identity is often experienced by children.
  • A permanent digital footprint is created, which may influence future academic and career paths, thus impacting their long-term prospects. This is a crucial consideration, as the internet retains information indefinitely (CyberSafeKids, 2025).

Research Highlights

Current research from 2025 further underscores the urgency of addressing children’s online privacy and the impact of the digital age:

• Over 80% of children in developed nations have a digital footprint by the age of two (OHCHR, 2021). This startling statistic highlights how early in life a digital presence begins.

• 1 in 4 children report feeling uncomfortable with their parents sharing their photos (Ghafourian et al., 2024). This figure emphasizes the need for increased parental sensitivity and consent.

• Influencer-driven parenting significantly increases exposure to unethical oversharing (Baxter & Czarnecka, 2025), necessitating greater parental discernment and awareness of commercial pressures.

• A recent Irish report, the “Online Safety Monitor 2025,” revealed that 40% of Irish children have experienced cyberbullying, with many not disclosing harmful incidents, and highlighted disturbing levels of exposure to harmful content (Children’s Rights Alliance, 2025). This report criticizes the systemic failure of the online world to prioritize children’s best interests.

• The European Parliament noted in 2025 that generative AI, if not supervised properly, carries risks for children whose cognitive capacities are still developing, including potential interference with learning and an increased risk of cyberbullying or online grooming (European Parliament, 2025).

Privacy Checklist for Parents

Here’s a quick action list every parent can implement today to enhance their child’s online privacy and foster a safer digital environment:

References

• Children’s Rights Alliance. (2025). Online safety monitor 2025. Retrieved from https://childrensrights.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Online-Safety-Monitor-2025.pdf
• CyberSafeKids. (2025, February 11). 82 per cent of children have unsupervised access to phones, research shows. BreakingNews.ie. Retrieved from https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/82-per-cent-of-children-have-unsupervised-access-to-phones-research-shows-1728522.html
• European Commission. (2025a, July 14). Commission publishes guidelines on the protection of minors. Digital Strategy. Retrieved from https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-guidelines-protection-minors
• European Commission. (2025b, July 29). European Commission guidelines on protection of minors under the Digital Services Act. Taylor Wessing. Retrieved from https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/insights-and-events/insights/2025/07/rd-european-commission-guidelines-on-protection-of-minors-under-the-digital-services-act
• European Parliament. (2025). Children and generative AI. Retrieved from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2025/769494/EPRS_ATA(2025)769494_EN.pdf
• Kids Central Pediatrics. (2025). The decline of sharenting: Why more parents are protecting their kids’ privacy online. Retrieved from https://kidscentralpediatrics.com/sharenting/
• Livingstone, S., O’Neill, B., & McAlpine, L. (2018). Parenting for a digital future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives. Polity Press.
• OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights). (2021). The right to privacy in the digital age. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/DigitalAge/OHCHR_report_on_the_right_to_privacy_in_the_digital_age.pdf

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