On April 17, 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand (OPC) announced that the surveys carried out within its Children and Young People's Privacy Project report showed concerns over the privacy risks for children using social media.

In particular, the OPC noted that the surveys presented three key themes, including that:

• social media is a major concern and a combination of guidance and regulatory changes are needed to manage this risk to children's privacy;
• more guidance is needed to help professionals, parents, and children better understand privacy risks; and
• some regulatory changes could better protect children's privacy, including changing the Privacy Act 2020 to include a right to be forgotten, introducing a requirement to consider the best interests of the child, or creating a code of practice.

Furthermore, the OPC highlighted that geolocation through the use of apps and gaming features is a lesser-known privacy risk that tracks the location of a child and can be easily managed by having the right privacy settings on a device.

Finally, the OPC announced that the findings from the survey will aid in finalizing the next steps for protecting children's privacy, including determining whether the current regulatory framework adequately supports children and young people's privacy rights, or whether new or expanded regulatory responses are required.

You can read the press release here and the project report here.