On April 21, 2020, the French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) launched a public consultation on the rights of minors in the digital services. The consultation is open until June 1, 2020.  The CNIL will use the contributions it receives to prepare recommendations in this area.

Under the French Data Protection Law, minors over 15 years old can consent, without parental consent, to the processing of their personal data in digital services.  According to the CNIL, the privacy of minors on the Internet still raises questions that have not been fully addressed by the French Data Protection Law and the GDPR.

The consultation asks stakeholders to answer the following questions:

• what online services are captured by the age limit of 15 years and the conditions under which a minor can perform certain acts on the Internet alone (e.g., register to social media or make online purchases);
• what measures websites and apps should implement to safeguard the privacy of minors;
• which online services should implement a age verification procedure and what age verification procedures are most appropriate; and
• whether minors should be able to exercise their rights alone (as opposed to through their parents) and from what age they should be able to do this.

On January 21, 2020, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office published a Code of Practice to protect children’s privacy online. This code is the result of a public consultation that took place between April 12, 2019 and May 31, 2019.