Source: Privacy Commissioner
“A child’s safety and wellbeing comes first,” is the Privacy Commissioner’s message to front-line workers after today’s announcement that the Government is working to better respond to child abuse.
“There is no legislative barrier to information sharing where there is a safety or wellbeing concern for a child.
“The Privacy Act does not stand in the way of protecting children from harm”, says the Commissioner.
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster was commenting on recommendation 7 of the Dame Karen Poutasi Review 2022, following the Government’s announcement today that all recommendations from the review have now been accepted.
Recommendation 7 talks about information sharing and raising awareness of the Oranga Tamariki Act, which provides a legal framework to share information about children and young people for wellbeing and safety concerns. While the law is clear, in practice people sometimes worry about falling foul of the Privacy Act.
Under the Privacy Act an organisation may generally only disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was originally collected or obtained, or for a good reason set out in the privacy principles. However, other Acts can allow personal information to be shared for specific reasons and a child suffering harm is a good example of when that is appropriate.
“People working with children will have legal protection from liability when they share information because they’re concerned about risk to a child’s safety or wellbeing; unless they share in bad faith,” says Mr Webster.
“Section 66C of the Oranga Tamariki Act is clear about when and why information can be shared and to who.
More broadly, section 15 of the Oranga Tamariki Act allows any person to raise concerns that a child or young person has been or is likely to be harmed, abused or neglected, either with Oranga Tamariki or with the Police. Reports of concerns by members of the public are also protected from legal liability, as long as the reports are not made in bad faith. This is under section 16 of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
“As Privacy Commissioner, it’s my job to help protect people’s information, but that absolutely does not get in the way of making sure children are safe and that the relevant agencies have the information they need to protect New Zealand’s children,” said Mr Webster.
“Being clear about what can and what can’t be shared is very important to us and our mahi.
“It’s important the personal information of children is managed with particular care. Good privacy practices help ensure you are sharing the right information, at the right time, with the right people. This ensures the protection of children’s wellbeing and safety is prioritised in a privacy protective way. But if it’s urgent to share information to avoid risk of harm to children, this should be the first priority.”
“It is important people working with children know they can share information about risks to a child’s wellbeing or safety with other agencies or people who are in a position to help keep that child safe. The information sharing regime in the Oranga Tamariki Act enables this – the Privacy Act is not a barrier”, Mr Webster says. The value of the Privacy Act is to help agencies keep that information safe, not to prevent agencies from sharing it when they need to.
Anyone with concerns for the safety of children should contact Oranga Tamariki and/or Police.
Any agency with questions about sharing information to protect children from harm can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
