It takes a society to protect children's privacy rights

Privacy-related research spans multiple disciplines and is centuries old. The topic of children's privacy is a complicated and multi-faceted area of privacy research. The responsibility for teaching children about privacy usually falls on their parents' and carers' shoulders. This responsibility can be quite challenging for them to embrace, with rapidly changing technological advances across the globe and difficulties being exacerbated by the combined efforts of multinational organizations striving to gather their data. This research attempts, first, to explore the concept of privacy in the existing research literature, and particularly in the online context. The authors then seek to identify the challenges faced by parents related to their children's privacy. In particular: (1) what are the difficulties with respect to citizens' understanding what privacy means, and (2) in conveying its import to children? We conclude that everyone has a role to play in shoring up our children's privacy. It starts with the parents, but involves every one of us.