Today’s young people are yet to be christened with a generational nickname that sticks – Generation Z feels far too ominous – but it’s much easier to define than “baby boomer” or “millennial”. These are the young people who will have grown up in the digital age, and therefore don’t remember a time before the internet. “Generation online”, perhaps.
It’s ironic, then, that this could be the first generation to have its digital rights restricted. The European Parliament is deciding this week on amendment to Europe’s Data Protection Regulation which would raise the age of digital consent from 13, the current bar, to 16, unless teens get specific parental consent. This means tech companies like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and email providers cannot process under-16s data, and therefore cannot accept them as users on their sites and services.
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