Child abuse records for unaccompanied minors are now exempt from privacy rules

The Department of Health and Human Services has exempted child abuse investigation records for unaccompanied minors from certain privacy protections. This means the government can now share these records more freely without notifying the children or allowing them to access their own files.

The Privacy Act usually gives people the right to see and correct their own government records. It also limits how agencies can share that information. This change means that unaccompanied children in government care lose those protections for records related to abuse investigations. It makes it harder for these children to know what information the government holds about them or to challenge it.