Children’s legal consciousness: the thorny right to privacy in social media

Given children’s increasingly earlier use of social media, this study offers empirical data as to the ways in which children understand and negotiate their human right to privacy online. We draw upon the concept of legal consciousness, in order to document the experiences of children as legitimate stakeholders in policy scenarios. Eighteen focus groups were conducted with 116 children from three age groups, 8-9, 11-12, and 14–16 years, in the Austrian capital, Vienna. Our findings show a sophisticated, common baseline of what privacy means for children, irrespective of the ways in which it is formulated and independent of the level of abstraction as a concept. Although differences between age groups are expected when it comes to abstract concepts and concrete issues around privacy, differences among children within the same age groups point to the pressing need for tailored approaches by all those caring for minors, from parents to educational systems and certainly to the state. Despite a strong demonstration of agency on behalf of children, children’s human right to privacy is compromised, we argue, because the exercise of this right is plagued with unrealistic choices imposed by global platforms, unequal educational systems and inequality in parenting and familial environments.