PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE SPHERE OF DIGITAL RIGHTS OF MINORS: CHALLENGES, PROBLEMS, AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive
administrative-legal and organizational analysis of
the principles of public administration in the sphere of
digital rights of minors in Ukraine. The research is
driven by the urgent need to ensure the full protection
of children's rights amidst the total digitalization of
social relations and European integration processes,
which necessitates an immediate response from the
public administration system. The substantive content
of children's digital rights, aligned with the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, General
Comment No. 25, and GDPR standards, is disclosed.
It is emphasized that the rapid development of
digital platforms, social networks, EdTech solutions,
and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems generates new
challenges for public administration, intensifying the
risks of privacy infringement among children through
profiling, non-transparent processing of personal
data, and commercial exploitation of minors' digital
footprints.
The paper analyzes the institutional potential
and activities of key public administration entities—
the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of
Digital Transformation, the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Human Rights, and the future
national data protection body. It is shown that the
effectiveness of state policy is reduced by systemic
problems, specifically: legislative gaps, lack of interagency coordination, insufficient specialized
institutions, and weak mechanisms for state and public
control over children's data processing. Furthermore,
the approaches outlined in the EU White Paper on AI
and the Ukrainian AI White Paper are analyzed, the
implementation of which requires clear regulatory
decisions from public administration.
The necessity of comprehensively improving the
legal framework to form a prospective model of public
administration is substantiated. This includes the
adoption of a special law on children's digital rights,
the introduction of the institution of a Digital
Ombudsman, the strengthening of administrative
liability, and the modernization of regulatory
mechanisms. It is concluded that achieving a high
level of protection for children's rights is possible
exclusively by realizing these outlined prospects
through inter-agency coordination and enhancing
digital literacy, thereby establishing a sustainable
foundation for a culture of digital responsibility in
society.
Keywords: digital rights of the child; public
administration; challenges; problems; prospects;
personal data; privacy; minors; digital security;
artificial intelligence; GDPR; EdTech; government
agencies; Digital Ombudsman; administrative law.