Osgoode Journalist in Residence program presents symposium on child rights and the internet

Osgoode Hall Law School’s Journalist in Residence program presents the symposium “A Child’s Right to be Forgotten: In Search of a Solution” on Nov. 12. The event will explore the theme of child rights and the internet.

Roxana Olivera, Osgoode’s journalist in residence

The symposium takes place in the Ignat Kaneff Building, Room 207, from 3 to 6:45 p.m. It is presented by Roxana Olivera, Osgoode’s journalist in residence. Inspired by the stories of children whose lives have been forever transformed by their abuse and lack of access to justice, this symposium brings together top legal professionals to explore these questions and much more.

The internet has become a modern highway of socialization, a popular means to communicate with people all over the world. But for scores of children worldwide, it has also become a vehicle for victimization and re-victimization, making image-based abuse global at the click of a mouse.

What is it like for children to live with images and narratives of abuse sitting permanently on the anonymous world of the internet? How does one even measure the overall emotional, psychological and physical harm associated with the online dissemination of that material?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed on Nov. 20, 1989, long before the internet came into existence. In the digitized world of the 21st century, whose mandate and whose responsibility is it to protect the best interests of children? In a world where an image can travel across borders in seconds, in which jurisdiction might people seek the rights to privacy and to be forgotten? Should transnational tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter be left to self-regulate, or should they be policed?

Participants in the symposium are:

  • Adriana Bracamonte, lawyer, Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Abogados;
  • Glen Canning, father of Rehtaeh Parsons;
  • Ann Cavoukian, distinguished expert-in-residence, Privacy by Design Centre of Excellence, Ryerson University;
  • Mary Condon, dean (interim), Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Pina D’Agostino, associate professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Trevor Farrow, professor and associate dean (academic), Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Joan Gilmour, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Shelley Kierstead, assistant professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Stuart Knight, solicitor (England and Wales);
  • Roxanne Mykitiuk, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Dan Priel, associate professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Craig Scott, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Lorne Sossin, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School; and
  • Antonio Turco, partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

RSVP at webform.osgoode.yorku.ca/view.php?id=347234.