‘Don’t turn children into data points’, technologist warns as new safety laws raise privacy concerns
Kollam, Dec 12 ( LatestNewsX ) – Child‑safety technologist Stephen Antony Venansious has warned that new legislation aimed at protecting youngsters might actually create fresh dangers by insisting on invasive age checks and personal data harvests.
“If we ask a child to surrender their face or identity just to play or learn online, we have already failed them,” he said, insisting that safeguarding measures should never come at the expense of children’s privacy.
Venansious has designed a system that spots grooming and abusive conduct directly on the child’s device, bypassing biometric verification or centralized data repositories. The solution is offered as an Application Programming Interface for gaming, education and social‑media platforms, enabling it to flag risky interactions without gathering photographs, ID paperwork or other sensitive details from minors.
He argues that the international conversation is disproportionately centered on identity confirmation rather than stopping harmful online behaviour.
These comments arrive as a surge of child‑safety laws sweeps across the globe. In the United States, proposed federal regulations could mandate that almost every user’s age be verified by online services. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has weighed in, cautioning that such requirements might pressure companies to collect vast amounts of sensitive documentation from children.
Australia is contemplating nationwide limits on social‑media access for under‑16s, while U.S. states such as Texas and Utah have moved forward with comparable statutes, raising alarms about surveillance and data misuse. Similarly, India is feeling the pressure.
A NITI Aayog‑backed report documented a 32 % jump in cybercrimes against children between 2021 and 2022, underscoring a spike in cyberbullying, predatory behaviour and privacy violations. It also highlighted that children are spending more time online even though parental digital literacy shows wide variation.
On Dec 9, UNICEF issued a statement warning that blanket bans and stringent age‑based filters could “backfire” by driving kids into unregulated online spaces. The agency stressed that effective protection must be built on safer platform design, robust content moderation and digital literacy, while preserving children’s rights to privacy and participation.
As governments push their new rules forward, regulators are being called upon to strike a balance between heightened online safety and the risk of turning child protection into another form of surveillance.
Venansious says the priority should be crystal clear: “The task is to protect childhood without turning children into data points and to prove that safety and privacy can stand together.”
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