Draft Children’s Online Privacy Code consultation

ARACY’s submission on the Draft Children’s Online Privacy Code, drawing on the direct views of young people from an ARACY-facilitated online workshop.

The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Draft Children’s Online Privacy Code (the Code). Young people who took part in the workshop backed the Code’s focus on transparency, safety and control, but were clear that the online environments they use every day don’t deliver those protections in practice.

What young people told us

Workshop participants identified problems they encounter repeatedly online:

  • Terms and conditions too long and complex to give genuine, informed consent
  • Manipulative design (“dark patterns”) that pressures users into accepting data collection
  • Data collection and retention beyond what platforms can clearly justify
  • Default settings, particularly for location tracking and profiling, that favour platform interests over user safety
  • Limited practical control over their own data, including deleting it or withdrawing consent

Their message was consistent: privacy protections shouldn’t depend on a young person’s ability to navigate a complicated system. They should be built in by default.

ARACY’s recommendations

  • Privacy-by-default settings for children and young people
  • Clear, accessible and age-appropriate explanations of data practices
  • Stronger limits on profiling, targeted advertising and data retention
  • Genuine, informed and ongoing consent mechanisms
  • Practical, enforceable rights to access, control and delete personal information

 

Download the full submission below