The Data Protection Act is proposed to be amended on four points applicable from 1 January 2024:
- Social media: Children are not allowed to use TikTok, Snapchat, etc. until they are 15 years old. Today they will be 13 years old. Read more about this below.
- Direct marketing: Until now, a company has had access to share customer information with other companies without consent. Access to this, however, required that only general customer information was shared, which formed the basis for division into customer categories. This access is now revoked. The basis for the activity must then be found in the data protection regulation, article 6, subsection 1, letter of
- The rights of the registered: The Process Licensing Board is exempt from the duty to provide information and the right of access in cases relating to permission to appeal, in the same way as the courts are today.
- The rights of the registered: The right to access does not apply to the Parliamentary Ombudsman's processing of personal data in case files that have been sent to the Ombudsman from authorities etc.
Children and social media
Background of the bill: On 29 June 2022, the then government established an expert group on tech giants, which aims to support the government's work in dealing with issues connected to the tech giant agenda in a national and international perspective.
The expert group recommends, as one of several measures in relation to the protection of children and young people on the internet, that the age limit for a child's consent in connection with social media be raised from 13 to 16 years.
The expert group emphasizes that an increasingly large part of children's and young people's lives takes place online, and refers in this context to the fact that several Danish studies show that physical contact among 11-15-year-olds has been significantly decreasing over the past 30 years, while online contact has increased. The expert group also emphasizes that certain types of content on the internet can be both illegal and directly harmful to children, which can have consequences for well-being, loneliness, body image, identity and cultural formation, etc.
In connection with setting the previous age limit of 13 years, there were, among other things, emphasized that children in Denmark are highly media-savvy, that access to information via search engines and participation in online activities has great societal and social significance for children and young people, and that activities in this context help to create and maintain contact with friends, just as children and young people get the opportunity to participate in various discussion forums, search for information for school work, play games, watch films and listen to music. Emphasis was also placed on the fact that a high age limit for when a child can validly give consent to the processing of personal data can lead to children and young people being excluded from information society services if the holder of parental authority does not want to give consent, just as it was pointed out that a high age limit could possibly result in children and young people using information society services[1] pretending to be older than they actually are
In light of the development, it is the Ministry of Justice's assessment that an age limit of 15 years will harmonize best with the other age limits that apply in Denmark, including among others given that the age limit for consent to treatment in the healthcare system and the criminal and sexual minimum age is 15 years.
In certain cases, however, consent from the holder of parental authority is still not necessary. It thus follows from recital no. 38 of the data protection regulation that consent from the holder of parental authority is not necessary when it comes to preventive or advisory services,
is offered directly to a child. In a Danish context, it could e.g. concerning the Children's Telephone.
Considerations: Children's access to social media must be assessed on the basis of a balance between opposing considerations. On the one hand is the consideration of participation and on the other is the consideration of protection. In just a few years, we as a society have become a bit more aware of the inappropriate aspects of social media. They are now increasingly considered to be dangerous - especially for children and young people. However, this is a general trend which, not least via the Digital Services Act, also shows itself as far as adults are concerned access to more or less sensible content on social media.
The bill is silent on this, but it must be assumed that the relevant social media must, as a starting point, obtain new consents from the parents of children and young people under the age of 15 on 1 January 2024.
Hearing deadline: 19 October 2023.