Children’s Personal Data
Children and Vulnerable Persons Personal Data
At-risk/vulnerable adults describes a person who, by reason of their physical or mental condition or other particular personal characteristics or family or life circumstance (whether permanent or otherwise), is in a vulnerable situation and/or at risk of harm and needs support to protect themselves from harm at a particular time. While not an exhaustive list, this can include individuals suffering from physical or mental conditions (such as cognitive impairment, dementia, acquired brain injury), children with additional needs reaching the age of majority, individuals subject to domestic violence or coercive control, individuals who find themselves homeless, individuals who are subject to financial abuse and individuals who have been trafficked.
The Data Protection Commission (DPC) created a (opens in a new window)Adult Safeguarding Toolkit to provide organisations and individuals with guidance and resources to protect the personal data of vulnerable adults and to ensure compliance with data protection legislation and promote best practices in safeguarding sensitive information.
How to approach consent when working with children?
If you work with children using consent with online services, you must ensure the child has reached the age of digital consent, which is 13 years in Ireland. However, the age of consent varies across EU countries. This means you need to know where a child is from and take measures to verify their age. If a child is under the required age, you need to get parental consent. You also need to make reasonable efforts to verify parental responsibility for those under the relevant age.
You also need to make sure that any communication with the child is in an appropriate child friendly language, e.g. in privacy policies for 13-18 years old.
For further information see:
(opens in a new window)HSE - National Policy for Consent in Health and Social Care Research which covers consent for inclusion of children in research
(opens in a new window)DPC - Adult Safeguarding Toolkit to Protect Vulnerable Adults' Data