Child Data Classification Standard (CDCS v1.0): A Data Governance Standard for Child Development Research

The Child Data Classification Standard (CDCS v1.0), published by the Blue Blocks Micro Research Institute, is a normative institutional framework that governs how data collected in child development research is classified, stored, shared, and ultimately destroyed. It establishes four tiers of data classification — Open, Researcher, Internal, and Restricted — each carrying progressively stricter access controls, encryption requirements, and handling procedures that reflect the sensitivity of the data and the risk of identifying individual children. The standard covers the full data lifecycle, from collection through to secure destruction, and includes detailed provisions on participant withdrawal rights, mandatory disclosure obligations where child safety is at risk, technical security requirements such as encryption standards and access logging, anonymization procedures, and incident response protocols. Compliance is mandatory for all research conducted under the authority or affiliation of the Institute, and the standard is designed to align with major data protection regulations including GDPR, India's DPDP Act 2023, COPPA, and FERPA, while operating in conjunction with the Institute's related methodological standards, particularly the Blue Blocks Embedded Observation Protocol (BEOP) and the Micro Research Ethics Framework (MREF). CDCS v1.0 completes the governance infrastructure for Blue Blocks Micro Research Institute's research program, operating alongside the Micro Research Ethics Framework (MREF v1.0, DOI:10.5281/zenodo.19047669), which governs ethical conduct, and the Blue Blocks Embedded Observation Protocol (BEOP v1.0, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19087415), which governs data collection procedures. Together, these three standards ensure that all child development research conducted under BBMRI authority is ethically approved (MREF), methodologically consistent (BEOP), and data-governed (CDCS) from collection through destruction. The standard is designed for adoption by other institutions conducting child development research and is published under an open-access license. CDCS aligns with GDPR, DPDP Act 2023, COPPA, and FERPA, and is designed for adoption by institutions internationally, not limited to the Indian regulatory contexts.