What counts as personal information
The OAIC’s list for young people: name, address, email, phone number, school, date of birth and photographs, and also things like location and opinions. A photo or video of someone is personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 if their identity is clear or could reasonably be worked out. The OAIC’s shorthand for young people is that personal information is “valuable like treasure”: hold onto it carefully, and share only what is needed.
A settings check, once a term
The OAIC suggests reviewing privacy settings regularly, “like at the start of each school term”. Gathered from its tips, a check might cover:
- Who can see what. Anything posted publicly can be seen by anyone; privacy settings limit who sees it.
- Camera, microphone and cookies. Settings can control how information is collected through each.
- Location. The OAIC suggests switching location services off whenever they aren’t needed.
- Passwords. Unique passphrases of a few words for every account, never shared, and multi-factor (2-step) sign-in where it’s offered.
- Apps. Download only from reputable sources, and know which apps and services a child uses and what they have handed over.
- The fine print. In privacy policies, look for words like “advertising”, “marketing”, “corporate partners” and “location tracking”, then see what the settings let you change.
The OAIC suggests checking policies together with children, to help them think about what they are swapping their personal information for.
Before an account closes
On 1 December 2025 the OAIC published privacy tips for young people whose accounts might be deactivated under the age law. It suggests that young people:
- go through the privacy settings on each account before it is deactivated
- keep their login safe, so they can reactivate the account at 16 if they decide to
- stay in touch by giving contact details privately, in secure chats with people they know and trust, rather than posting a phone number, email or address publicly
- bear in mind that a digital footprint can last forever, and is hard to remove once shared.
eSafety adds that young people should download anything they want to keep, rather than rely on a platform offering reactivation. Mark 4 has eSafety’s steps for preparing.
What the Privacy Act covers
The Privacy Act covers organisations operating in Australia with an annual turnover of more than $3 million, and some others. The OAIC names Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn among the social networks covered. It doesn’t cover individuals acting in a personal capacity, so you generally can’t enforce a privacy right against another person, though other laws, such as copyright or defamation, may apply.
The Act doesn’t set an age at which a young person can make their own privacy decisions. An organisation decides case by case whether someone under 18 has the maturity to consent; where that isn’t practical, it may generally assume someone over 15 has that capacity.
When something is posted about your child
| The situation | What the OAIC suggests |
|---|---|
| A post or photo you want taken down | Ask the person who posted it to remove it. If they refuse, or you don’t know who it is, ask the site or network; most let you request removal of personal information for privacy reasons. |
| The person who posted it goes to the same school | Tell a trusted teacher or the school counsellor. |
| A child is being cyberbullied | The eSafety Commissioner (see Mark 5). |
| An organisation mishandled personal information | Complain to the organisation first; if it doesn’t respond, or the answer isn’t satisfactory, complain to the OAIC. |
| Serious harassment | The police. |
You don’t need to join a social network to complain to it about your personal information; its Help or Privacy options usually explain how. For data collected in an age check, the OAIC publishes contact details for each named platform and common age-check provider.
What parents share
The OAIC points out that what parents post about their children adds to the children’s digital footprint, and can be used in ways they did not expect and cannot control. Before sharing, it suggests parents and carers think about:
- who will be able to see the post
- whether you, and your child, are happy for those people to have the photo or the details
- whether you are happy for the service itself to hold this information about your child, given it may be used for other purposes
- whether the settings check above could keep it more private.