As Canada marks National Child Day, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne reaffirms the importance of safeguarding the privacy of children in an increasingly connected world. In Canada and internationally, the Privacy Commissioner is working with his counterparts to strengthen and advance children's privacy rights.
On November 20, Commissioner Dufresne joined privacy authorities from across the country in issuing a joint resolution on Protecting the privacy of children and youth in the classroom through responsible educational technologies (EdTech) to help ensure that privacy rights and the best interests of children are paramount in the development, procurement, and deployment of EdTech.
The Commissioner also announced the members of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's (OPC) new Youth Council. The OPC Youth Council is a space for young people to share their insights and experiences related to the privacy challenges that matter most to them. This input will help the OPC to better understand how these issues impact young people and inform its work in this important area.
Championing children's privacy is one of Commissioner Dufresne's strategic priorities for his Office - a priority that is shared by many of his counterparts in Canada and around the world.
EdTech resolution
The joint resolution on EdTech affirms that the rights to both privacy and education are fundamental and interdependent. It also recognizes that governments, on education institutions and EdTech providers share a responsibility to ensure that the adoption of new tools does not come at the expense of students' privacy.
These tools can introduce new risks to privacy - especially for children and young people who have no choice but to use educational platforms that collect and use their personal information in the classroom. Such risks include significant data breaches, student profiling, biometric surveillance, and manipulative design.
The resolution calls on governments to assume their responsibility for ensuring student privacy when assessing or authorizing EdTech; on education institutions to protect privacy throughout the procurement process; and on vendors to design privacy protective tools that take the best interests of children into account.
OPC Youth Council
A call for applications for the new OPC Youth Council was launched during the 2025 OPC Symposium on Youth Privacy in a Digital Age, which took place on June 20, 2025.
Members of the Youth Council will work with the OPC to bring deeper insight into the privacy risks and issues that affect youth, and to advise the OPC on policies and projects that can help to protect and promote youth privacy. They will also collaborate with the OPC in designing public education and outreach campaigns.
The Youth Council is made up of seven youth from across Canada, representing a diverse range of perspectives, experiences and communities.
Championing children's privacy
To mark National Child Day, Commissioner Dufresne is reiterating his commitment to elevating youth voices and leading efforts to strengthen privacy protections for young people. Initiatives that are central to delivering on this priority include:
- Children's privacy code: The OPC has launched work to develop a children's privacy code aimed at strengthening the protection of young people's personal information in a digital world.
- Advancing privacy research on children: The OPC recently published Contributions Program research projects exposing children's privacy risks, evaluating protections, and proposing safeguards across digital platforms. They address AI, mobile games, virtual reality, and login systems - each highlighting vulnerabilities and offering policy or design solutions.
- Strengthening children's privacy protections on social media: Commissioner Dufresne and his provincial counterparts in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta recently conducted a joint investigation that examined how TikTok collects and uses the personal information of its users, including younger users. As a result, TikTok has taken steps and committed to take further steps to improve its privacy practices, including improved measures to keep children off its platform and stopping the use of granular information, such as interests inferred from use of the platform, to target ads to users under 18.
- International collaboration: Earlier this month, the OPC partnered with more than 30 data protection and privacy authorities from across Canada and around the world to conduct a Global Privacy Enforcement Network privacy sweep that is examining websites and mobile applications commonly used by children. In September 2025, Commissioner Dufresne was elected Chair of the Global Privacy Assembly, a leading international forum for data protection and privacy authorities. His vision as Chair centres around collaboration on three main themes, one being championing youth privacy. In June 2025, Commissioner Dufresne hosted the G7 Data Protection and Privacy Authorities Roundtable where G7 privacy regulators adopted a joint communiqué Championing privacy in a digital age: Collective action today for a trusted tomorrow, as well as a joint statement on promoting responsible innovation and protecting children by prioritizing privacy.
Quotes
"National Child Day is an opportunity to highlight the rights of children and youth, including their right to privacy. The privacy rights of young people must be prioritized so that they can safely explore, learn, and express themselves, including in digital spaces. I call on organizations to protect children's privacy by putting their best interests at the forefront and designing services with strong safeguards for their personal information. We must also continue efforts to support digital literacy and empower children and parents with privacy awareness."
Philippe Dufresne
Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Quick facts
- Many Canadian parents and teachers worry about privacy protection for young people:
- 69% of parents and 78% of teachers are concerned about the amount of personal information companies collect about young people.
- 65% of parents and 78% of teachers are concerned about the amount of personal information young people share online.
- 73% of parents and 75% of teachers are concerned about the risks to young people from the use or misuse of their personal information.
- National Child Day is celebrated in Canada and many countries around the world on November 20 to acknowledge the importance of children's rights. It commemorates the day in 1989 when the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, recognizing children's rights.
- Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says that "No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
Related links
- Resolution: Protecting the privacy of children and youth in the classroom through responsible educational technologies
- New release: Privacy Commissioner of Canada collaborates on privacy priorities at annual meeting of Canada's information and privacy regulators
- Provincial and territorial collaboration
- 2024-2025 Public Opinion Research on Privacy Issues
- OPC Youth Council
For more information
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Canada K1A 1H3
www.priv.gc.ca
