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Where does the virtual buck stop?

11 March 2010 / Sharon Mitchell
Issue: 7408 / Categories: Features , Media , LexisPSL , Technology
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The modern child’s relationship with the mobile phone is complex. He is a provider and a receiver of content, a potential customer, and a potential supplier of goods/services by on-line shopping, transferring media files, etc.

The modern child’s relationship with the mobile phone is complex. He is a provider and a receiver of content, a potential customer, and a potential supplier of goods/services by on-line shopping, transferring media files, etc.

Much of this is done at the expense of a parent who contracts as subscriber to obtain the service. A range of legal issues arise. Mobile phone contracts which offer “free” devices leave the user with little perception of the cost of the physical device. In contrast, considerable personal value is placed on the content which carries with it issues of data protection and confidentiality. Data protection law involves concepts of consent.

Under the UK law, children have rights of privacy and confidentiality. In addition, the principles set down in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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