Special precaution should be taken when publishing children’s personal data

“Developers of children’s personal data, including state bodies and the media must publish personal data only for lawful purposes, to an adequate, necessary and reasonable extent for achieving the goal,” says the Advisory Decision of the Agency for Personal Data Protection under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, published on 21 March (http://moj.am/storage/uploads/Save-the-Children-FINAL-1.pdf). It is based on the letter addressed to the Agency by Save the Children International Armenia Representative Office with regard to publication of children’s personal data as a result of coverage of the incident that took place in Boarding School No 2 of Yerevan.

The Agency for Personal Data Protection under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia calls on state bodies and the media to take special precaution when publishing children’s personal data in order not to hurt the children, using depersonalisation means of personal data (changing the child’s name, using only the initials, not showing the child’s face in the photo, etc.), publishing children’s personal data only in such special cases when publication is extremely important for protecting the child’s best interest and when that goal cannot be achieved by way of depersonalisation.