Easy Read Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment
This page relates to work carried out to inform the original development of the Protect Scotland App. It has been retained for transparency.
The Scottish Government is assessing the impact of lowering the target age group of the app to allow children in secondary school to use it if they want to. The app initially launched as 16+.
Lowering the age of access will enable more of the population to use the app to stay safe and to support the work of the contact tracing programme. In doing so the Scottish Government will ensure it meets legal and data requirements concerning children and young people.
Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world. Children and young people have the same human rights as adults. They also have specific children's rights under the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that recognise their special needs so that they can develop to reach their full potential.
We spoke to groups of children aged 10-15 and asked for their views on a Northern Irish version of the Protect Scotland app. This version of the app had already gone through rigorous testing and research so we wanted to find out if it would be suitable for use in Scotland.
Some language was flagged as needing to be clearer. Common terms such as "random ID" or "exposure notifications" needed explanation.
It was also fed back that simple videos to accompany the text on how to use the app would be beneficial to help improve understanding.
When asked if they would download the app, they all said they would. They also said that if they were advised to ask for a parent/carer's consent they would get it. Many of the children were unable to download apps without their parent/carer's consent as protection was in place on their mobile phones.
When asked if they would report a positive test comments included:
"No negatives about warning other people"
"Helps you do everything in one place"
"More than happy to submit my results"
When the children were asked how they would feel if they were advised to isolate via the app, they expressed some feelings of concern and worry but would unanimously seek guidance from parent/carer. We have tried to address this by making sure if you receive an alert that it tells you what you need to do. We have also made sure the app asks you to check with a parent if there's something you don't understand.
We also spoke with groups of parents and people who work in education for their feedback. Overall, it was agreed that introducing the app to secondary school children would be.
Once we had made a test version of the Protect Scotland app we showed groups of young people and parents who all welcomed the changes and many acknowledged that their feedback had been taken onboard.
Below is a list of the groups we contacted about the app:
- Scottish Commission of Learning Disability
- Children's Parliament
- Scottish Youth Parliament
- Young Scot
- Parenting Across Scotland
- National Parenting Forum
- Connect
- Together Scotland
- Scottish Government Learning Directorate
- Information Commissioner's Office
- Children from Children's Parliament (10-15-year olds)
- Education Scotland
- Covid-19 Education Recovery Group
- Equality and Digital Inclusion Group for Digital Health and Care
Below is a list of the groups we contacted about the app:
We ensured that we met guidelines for General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and legal requirements set out in the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991. We designed the app to ensure if you were secondary education but hadn't yet turned 12 you are asked to get consent from your parents when giving permission to automated decisions. We also make sure through careful messaging that if you're are still at school and using the app that you ask a parent or guardian about anything you don't understand.
The app has been determined as an online preventative service which means the Age Appropriate Design Code need not apply nevertheless, we have tried to apply its principles as much as possible.
Read the full Children's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment.
If you have any questions about using the app visit How it Works and FAQs.