Legal Capacity to Consent of Minor as a Data Subject

Abstract

Minors are the vulnerable persons and lack the ability to freely consent, while consent to the processing of personal data is complicated.This article, therefore, aims to research activities, which minors can provide consent to the processing of personal data without parental consent. It also includes a study of the appropriateness of minors’ age prescribed in the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 as well as the adoption of Section 22, Section 23, and Section 24 of the Civil and Commercial Code as an exception to the case in which the minors have the legal capacity to provide consent on their own.

According to the findings of the study, it appears that the activity that minors can independently do is providing consent to the data controller for allowing parents to access or request a copy of personal data on behalf of minors. However, there is an inconsistency between the defined minors’ age and medical research concerning cognitive development in children. In addition, the interpretation of Section 22, Section 23, and Section 24 of the Civil and Commercial Code to the case is still unclear. Therefore, the author suggests that there should be improvements on the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562: by adopting and implementing the doctrines of legal capacity; and age of minors; including the standard for obtaining verifiable parental consent from the data protection law of the United States of America, European Union, England, and China.