What data protection rights does my child/adolescent have, and can I exercise them on the child’s/adolescent’s behalf as their parent?

All of us, children and young people included, have a number of data protection rights. Firstly, children and young people have the right to be informed of why their personal data is being processed and for what purposes, and for how long their personal data will be stored. The child or young person can ask the hobby organiser what data the organiser is processing on them and request a copy of the data. The child or young person can also request the hobby organiser to correct errors in their data or to complete incomplete data. In some cases, the child or young person can also ask the club to erase some data stored about them. The erasure of data is not always possible, however, if the hobby organiser has a legal basis for storing the data.

As a rule, a child’s custodian or representative can exercise the child’s data protection rights on the child’s behalf. Please note that, in some cases, a custodian may not have the right to exercise data protection rights on the child’s behalf. Even minors have the right to their own data, and some laws specify that minors can restrict their custodians’ right of access to their data. As the child gets older, they will also eventually be able to manage matters related to the processing of their personal data by themselves, at which point they will have the right to refuse their parents access to their personal data.

If the child or young person wants to exercise their data protection rights, or their parent wants to do so on their behalf, they must turn to the controller of the data. In hobbies, requests for exercising data protection rights should be addressed to the hobby club or association, for example by contacting its data protection officer or other contact person.

More detailed information on when a custodian can exercise their child’s data protection rights can be found in the following article: