Laws try to help kids with their sharing of info online

Choi Young-jin, vice chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, explains the "right to be forgotten" at a press conference in the Central Government Complex in Seoul on Monday. [NEWS1]

Children will have the “right to be forgotten” starting in 2023, the Personal Information Protection Commission announced Monday.

The right to be forgotten refers to an individual’s right to have private information removed from Internet searches and social media. The concept has been put into practice in several places such as the European Union, the United Kingdom and Argentina.

As part of a new Children and Youth Personal Information Protection Act, children in Korea will be able to request deletion of personal information online in 2023, whether posted by themselves or a third party.

The Children and Youth Personal Information Protection Act apply to people under the age of 19.

Before, those over the age of 14 were treated as adults in regards to personal information policies.

Saying that teenagers are inexperienced in exercising their privacy rights and protecting their personal information, the Personal Information Protection Commission decided to expand the scope of protection.

“In a digital age where everything revolves around technology, it is urgent that we construct a legitimate and practical personal information protection policy for children,” said Yoon Jong-in, chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission.

Today's children and teens grew up with digital devices. With easy access to Internet sites and social media, this generation is particularly vulnerable to the dangers of infringement of personal information.

Due to ignorance or indifference, children often mindlessly agree to personal information policies online and allow personal information to be disclosed freely.

“Most children do not know how to protect themselves, so it’s the government’s job to take action,” Yoon added.

Under the Children and Youth Personal Information Protection Act, online companies and operators have new personal information-processing policies specifically for children.

Companies, social media services and website operators need to re-word personal information policies for children using language easy to understand. How personal information is collected, used and publicized must be included, and these policies must be disclosed prior to collecting data.

For social media services and gaming websites, when the user is a child under the age of 14, it is prohibited to collect and use personal information for the purpose of customizing commercial advertisements.

“Sharenting” has become a problem as well. Sharenting is the term for parents uploading photos, videos or captions of their children on social media and other websites.

Sharenting often happens in a blog-like format, detailing children’s private life in chronological order. This kind of personal information can be gathered from sharenting posts and misused for crimes.

Barclays, a British multinational financial company, published a report that predicts “two-thirds of identity theft crimes that occur by 2030 will be because of sharenting.”

Sharenting has become a popular trend among new parents, putting children’s personal information at risk.

“Education on the dangers of sharenting is urgently needed,” Yoon said.

BY KIM MIN-WOOK [kjdnational@joongang.co.kr]