Safeguarding Children’s Digital Footprints: A Study Of Data Privacy Laws For Minors – India And U.S.
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 22
- 2 min read
Dr. Priya J Shah, Jitendra Chauhan College of Law
ABSTRACT
Today, as children wind seamlessly into the surroundings around them in the elevated cyberspace globe, protecting their personal data becomes increasingly necessary. This paper discusses emerging data privacy laws for minors based on India's and the United States' contrasting legal frameworks on children's digital footprints. The point, however, is that while in the United States the chief regulation on children under thirteen is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), here at home the regulatory milieu comprises the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, as well as the pending Personal Data Protection Bill, which promises to provide further stringent protection to children's online privacy. The nature and specific scope of the two-siloed regulations will be analyzed in terms of their effectiveness, enforcement, and alignment with global best practices. It observes issues such as parental consent, data retention, online advertising, as well as children's rights to control personal information, as treated in laws of the respective countries. Through the analysis of legal provisions in India and the U.S., the paper further points out challenges and gaps in current regulations and opportunities for strengthening children's rights in data protection. It also analyzes the impact of such laws on the behavioral changes of corporations and consumer trust besides the broad societal consequences of children's data privacy in an increasingly digitized landscape. Moreover, he recommended measures that could be taken for the improvement of safeguarding minors from digital data thereby providing lessons from both legal systems to develop a more robust and harmonized global approach to online privacy protection of children.
The study thus hopes to deepen the melting pot of arguments produced regarding technology, privacy, and child welfare while giving insight into the solutions found by both countries to the data privacy dilemmas that minors face in an increasingly digital environment.
Keywords: Data Privacy, Children's Digital Footprints, Minors, COPPA, Online Privacy
