Finland wants better protection for children online

PRESS RELEASE 7.7.2022

Helsinki, 7 July 2022 09:00 EST

Two thirds of Finns think that children should have more protections in the digital environment, to keep them safe online.

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Working with YouGov, Protect Children (Suojellaan Lapsia ry.) polled 1,021 members of the Finnish public in April 2022 on children’s data protections in the digital environment. They found widespread public support for using data regulations as part of the regulatory mix required to achieve a safer digital environment for children. About two thirds of Finns felt children should have more protections when it comes to the laws and regulations that govern the digital environment.

Protect Children worked with Rys Farthing, Data Policy Director at Reset Australia, to outline the results in a new report “Finland wants better protection for children online”.

Support for stronger protections was slightly higher among women than men (73% versus 56%); those with children (65% where they had a child over 7 at home, compared to 54% where there were no children at home) and; older people rather than younger adults (77% from those over 60 vs 58% for those 18-29 years old). Support was relatively equally spread across the country.

When it came to support for embedding children’s rights into data protection regulations, over three quarters of the public agreed that the regulations and laws that govern digital services should require services to use data in ways that advance children’s rights.

Protect Children calls for a “children’s rights-by-design” approach to ensure children’s rights are built into the way the digital environment is designed and built in the first instance.

“We need a holistic approach to ensuring children’s rights in the digital environment, that includes stronger protection for their data and stronger protections from online childhood sexual exploitation and abuse.”

Protect Children is urging the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman to work with the European Data Protection Board as new data regulations for children are developed, and to ensure that when regulation is passed, it is swiftly and rigorously implemented in Finland, in order to fully realize children’s rights.

Read Protect Children’s report: https://protectchildren.fi/2022/07/07/finland-wants-better-protection-for-children-online/

Contact:

Tegan Insoll, Researcher & Specialist

tegan.insoll@protectchildren.fi

+358 40 610 2000