Creating a better internet for
children & young people
TrustElevate’s technology provides the solution to a major problem that social media, streaming & gaming companies have been trying to solve for years: how to make sure children and young people have the best experience online while keeping everyone (and their data!) safe.
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The question they had to answer to solve that problem was "How do we know which of our users is a child and which is an adult?" TrustElevate is the answer.
Social media, streaming & gaming companies, among others, have always said that they don’t know how to tell who is a young person and who is an adult online. This has meant that lots of children see content they find upsetting and are contacted by adults who say things to them that aren’t appropriate.
It also means that these companies don’t change the way they manage their users’ data - even though the law says they have to manage young people’s data in a different way from adults’ data to protect them. So, companies end up routinely collecting young people’s data and selling it on without the young person’s knowledge, which is not only illegal (under the General Data Protection Regulation) but can and does negatively impact young people everywhere.
When companies that have taken your data from you then sell it on, it may go to universities, employers and insurers: the cost of your car insurance may go up and your chances of securing a place at university may go down, all because of some data that you didn’t even know was being taken from you.
Our technology enables parents and teens to grant or deny consent to the use of their personal data and to exercise the right for their online activity to be forgotten. Why should your use of the internet today affect your future?
At TrustElevate, we believe that young people should be able to explore the internet freely without having to worry about companies exploiting you for profit. We also believe that you should have a say in how we, as a society, ensure that.
Learn more about your digital rights below
Your Rights
The rights written for children and young people were described in the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child. One of them is written in Article 13, which says that children have the right to freedom of expression and information. Expressing yourself can mean saying, writing or drawing something in the real world or posting on the internet. Freedom of expression also means the right to be informed. You should be able to access information about what’s happening and things that interest you. This is important so you can learn about the world, ask questions and have your own thoughts.
Another is Article 16, which says that children have the right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their family and their home. Privacy is just as important online as it is in real life. Websites and companies on the internet cannot take your personal information without your (and your parent’s) permission. Everyone must do their best to protect any information you do give.
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Article 17 also relates to children on the internet. Children have the right to reliable information from the media. This means you have the right to get information in lots of ways, so long as it’s safe. It also states that children and young people should be protected from media that is harmful.
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When you go online, it is important to know that you have the right to participate, to privacy and to protection. If you notice a website, game or person online that is asking for too much personal information, or is trying to show you things that make you uncomfortable or sad you now know that it is your right to be protected from that! So speak to a parent, guardian or teacher. Or you can report them through websites like www.thinkuknow.org.uk.
Remember that when we’re talking about our personal information in the context of the internet, it is sometimes also called personal data. So, the General Data Protection Regulation, which contains more rights written to protect children, is protecting your personal information. Protecting that information, or data, is very important.
If someone with bad intentions managed to get your personal information, they could:
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Hack your accounts
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Share your information without asking you
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Sell it to other people who might pretend to be you
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Find you online and try to upset you or make you uncomfortable
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Find you in real life
That is why there are laws in place to make sure companies do their best to protect your data. But you also have certain rights to do with your data, so you and your parent can do something if you want to change the way it’s being handled!
Your Data Rights
1) Right to
information
This right provides you with the ability to ask a company for information about what personal data about you is being processed. You can also ask the reasons for such processing. For example, you may ask Disney for the list of data processors or with whom your personal data is shared.
2) Right to access
This right provides you with the ability to get access to your personal data that is being processed by a company. This request provides the right for data subjects to see their own data, as well as to ask for copies of the personal data.
3) Right to rectification
This right provides you with the ability to ask for changes or edits to your personal data in case you believe that this personal data is not up to date or true.
4) Right to withdraw consent
5) Right to object
6) Right to be forgotten
This right provides you with the ability to withdraw or ‘take back’ consent for the processing of your data. The request would then require the company to stop the processing of the personal data that was based on the consent provided before.
This right provides you with the ability to object to the processing of personal data. Normally, this would be the same as the right to withdraw consent, but some processes might not need full consent from you at the beginning, like direct marketing or profiling. Profiling is making a profile of you based on all the information companies collect about you to sell things to you. If you do not want your data to be used for ads, you can object or say no to that.
Also known as right to erasure, this right provides you with the ability to ask for a company to delete your data so they can’t access it anymore
7) Right to data portability
This right provides you with the ability to ask for the transfer of your personal data. You may ask for your personal data to be provided back you, or transferred to another company.