This is the kind of thing where it might be ask for a panopticon where the parents can see precisely what kind of queries are run on their data, by whom and why, with a time limited ability to keep query data secret for police investigations and such.
Fighting against this type of data sharing on principle will probably fail because there are some legitimate use cases to Keep the Children Safe for this type of data.
It'll be hard, however, to push back a request that all data access requests are logged with justifications because, after all it helps to Keep the Children Safe.
You might also discover that the appetite for this data might wane entirely if they can't access it without being monitored and without having to justify themselves.
I'm curious how well a GDPR challenge would fare. There's specific exemptions around data gathering to detect fraud and to solve crimes, but this database has a lot more detail and the lack of consent from families is concerning.
One of the details mentioned in the article is that the ICO (the UK data protection regulator) has reportedly already given its blessing to what is going on here. That's interesting because it suggests that either the nature of the system and any potential risks it brings are being overstated by its critics or the public service that explicitly exists to regulate such systems isn't effectively limiting the power of the state where it should. Those are very different situations and I don't think there's enough objective information in the article to tell which is happening.
Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR states that data processing is lawful if it is “necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.”
Fighting against this type of data sharing on principle will probably fail because there are some legitimate use cases to Keep the Children Safe for this type of data.
It'll be hard, however, to push back a request that all data access requests are logged with justifications because, after all it helps to Keep the Children Safe.
You might also discover that the appetite for this data might wane entirely if they can't access it without being monitored and without having to justify themselves.