Children’s rights to privacy in times of emergency: The case of Serbia in relation to internet education technologies

Abstract

In the digital era the privacy of children has become an issue of particular importance. With the spread of COVID-19 many schools turned to online education, causing this vulnerable group of internet users to be more and more engaged in the digital sphere. It has thus become questionable whether children are protected enough when education systems increasingly turn to online teaching. When Serbia declared a state of emergency in an attempt to contain the new virus in March 2020, the national educational system also implemented online schooling. Since there have been severe privacy breaches in Serbia even before this pandemic, a basic question arises as to whether the right to privacy of children was adequately respected and protected when the students were required to use a number of programmes, networks and applications in order to attend classes. This article investigates the right to privacy of children during the recent application of online teaching/learning technologies and platforms in Serbia, exploring key emerging issues concerning online schooling and identifying further research on problems pertaining to this right that will inevitably appear in the years to come.