Ms Olga Cronin:

I wish to make a point about children in terms of age, the difference and the differentiation. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released general comment No. 25 last March. Other people have raised this in previous sessions with the committee. The committee consulted with 709 children across 28 countries and it states that meaningful access to digital technologies can support children to realise the full range of their civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights. This is very important. Children have a right to participate online and a right to seek, receive and impart information. However, of course, children have the right to be protected from harm. One way towards safeguarding the protection would be mandating service users to carry out children's rights impact assessments, as stated in the comment. That was mentioned by previous witnesses, including Professor Conor O'Mahony and Dr. Karen McAuley. Dr. McAuley also spoke about international frameworks that speak to the responsibilities of businesses in regard to human rights and children's rights. We would support the call from both Professor O'Mahony and Dr. McAuley regarding the need for those assessments.

That same comment called for robust age verification systems that would be consistent with data protection and privacy requirements. They should be used to prevent children from acquiring access to products and services that are illegal for them to use based on age. Such systems, if they are sufficiently robust, should enable businesses to operate granular safety settings which would uphold and respect the children's right to participate.