Children’s Privacy and Data Protection in Judicial Decisions in Indonesia

Abstract

. Children’s privacy and data protection is essential in maintaining and fulfilling legal obligations in protecting children's privacy. The child is appointed as a defendant, witness or victim and legally the trial is declared closed to the public in order to protect the child's privacy. Since the trial is declared closed to the public, the identity of the child cannot be published, including when the verdict is declared. Problems arise when an excerpt of a verdict from a case related to children is published and displayed on the Supreme Court website demonstrating inconsistencies in protecting the child's privacy in the legal process. In some cases, it has been found that the court verdict displays the child's identity completely or partially. Even where there are verdicts that do not display the child’s identity, information regarding the criminal cases may be clearly exposed in the verdict making it possible to find out personal information about the children as well. As such, through an analysis of secondary data and a review of the legal framework, this paper presents the protection of children's privacy data in judicial decisions as currently found in Indonesia, and its implications for children. It concludes by identifying how legal norms should rule the protection of children's privacy data in judicial decisions.