In the name of protection—A critical analysis of China's legal framework of children's personal information protection in the digital era

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of the China's legal framework of children's personal information protection in the digital era. It demonstrates that Chinese lawmakers adopt a dual-protection paradigm consisting of data privacy law and family law to protect children's personal information. In the field of data privacy law, China's Personal Information Protection Law regards children's personal information as sensitive information, and provides all contexts-based protection through the parental consent system, resulting in severe restrictions on children's freedom of access to information and their evolving capacities. In the field of family law, the Minors Protection Law fragments the right to informational self-determination of children while applying hard legal paternalism with respect to the online live-broadcast for children, limiting children's fundamental right to freedom of expression and depriving parents of the right to the custody of their children. Based on research in developmental psychology, this article argues that different legal frameworks should be adopted according to different age groups of children to protect the best interest of the child. In this way, the balance between the protection and informational self-determination of children in the digital era can be achieved.