"The legislature and the government must include specific clauses regarding children's data protection on the personal data protection bill by utilizing a child rights approach," he stated in a press statement received in Jakarta on Friday.
He made the recommendation of including articles on children's data protection in response to a recent data leak that affected the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) database, as first revealed by a Twitter user on October 13, 2021.
KPAI member Jasra Putra later confirmed the database leak and said that the organization has asked the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) to help investigate it.
"The repeated data leak incident has proved the weakness in our data protection system and its law enforcement," the ELSAM executive director said.
The personal data protection bill, which is currently under deliberation by the parliament has failed to address the protection of children's data, as the bill only designates children's data as sensitive data and prohibits its collection and processing without explicit consent from the data subject, Djafar noted.
"The problem is that children, under the guardianship of their parents, cannot legally provide explicit consent even though their data must be processed for essential needs, such as for educational purposes," he explained.
Djafar then asked the KPAI to be responsible as the data controller and abide by the obligations for responsibility and adherence to legal requirements, ensure data processing security and data secrecy, record its processing, notify data breaches and violations, and perform data protection assessment.
"KPAI is required to enforce special protection measures to ensure children's data safety," he said.
Related news: Need to ensure protection of children orphaned by COVID-19: KPPPA
Related news: Child protection agency urges regional governments to protect orphans
Related news: Government ensures protection for children amid pandemic
Translator: Putu Indah S, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
