Protecting Children’s Privacy in Transboundary Cyberspace: Challenges of Platform Civil Liability and Criminal Prosecution of Illegal Data Transit

Children’s privacy in transboundary cyberspace has become a pressing concern in contemporary international legal discourse, as digital platforms increasingly collect, transfer, and monetize minors’ personal data across multiple jurisdictions. The borderless structure of cyberspace weakens traditional territorial approaches to privacy protection and creates significant legal uncertainty regarding the civil liability of platforms and the criminal prosecution of unlawful data transit. This article examines the extent to which current international and comparative legal frameworks are capable of protecting children from cross-border data exploitation, with particular attention to the interaction between private international law, cybercrime regulation, and human rights obligations. The main objective of the study is to analyze the legal and practical challenges that hinder effective accountability for violations of children’s privacy in transboundary digital environments. The research adopts a doctrinal and comparative review method, drawing on international legal instruments, scholarly literature, and selected national and regional regulatory approaches to identify recurring patterns of fragmentation, jurisdictional conflict, and enforcement weakness. Special attention is given to the limits of civil remedies against digital platforms, the shortcomings of criminal cooperation mechanisms such as Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, and the difficulties of attributing liability and collecting admissible digital evidence across borders. The findings show that existing legal mechanisms are fragmented and insufficiently coordinated to address the realities of global data flows. Civil liability regimes often fail to deter large platforms because compensation is treated as a cost of business, while criminal prosecution is hindered by delays in evidence sharing, differences in legal definitions, and the technical complexity of attribution. The study also finds that divergent national standards encourage regulatory arbitrage and weaken child protection globally. At the same time, emerging paradigms such as Privacy by Design and child-centered data governance offer promising preventive tools. In conclusion, the protection of children’s privacy in transboundary cyberspace requires a more coherent international response that integrates civil accountability, criminal enforcement, and preventive regulation. A harmonized legal framework would better safeguard children’s rights and reduce the opportunities for exploitation in the digital age.

کلیدواژه ها:

children’s privacy ، transboundary cyberspace ، platform liability ، cybercrime ، international law