Protecting children’s data in a digital world

Navigating parenting in 2025 is a challenge - how do we prepare and support children to explore the digital world? Emily Keaney, ICO Deputy Commissioner looks at how we're working to change things and make the job for parents a little easier.

Part of parenting is educating and preparing your child for daily life, from showing them how to cross the road safely to teaching them stranger danger. When that daily life also involves social media and video sharing platforms – with children spending up to eight hours a day on these channels – safety is no less significant. But it feels more complicated.

Our new research shows that almost half of British parents (42%) feel they have little or no control over the information social media and video sharing platforms are collecting about their children – and the same number again feel unable to explain it to their kids.

A quarter of the public (23%) say they, or their children, have stopped using particular platforms and channels because they’re concerned about how this data is used or collected.

We want to be clear: the ICO is here to make sure children can safely use online services without sacrificing their digital privacy. We will not accept complacency in how these platforms handle their personal information.

Prioritising children’s privacy

In the past few years, children’s privacy has gone from behind-the-scenes regulatory circles to now being part of mainstream public debate. This has been driven by parents and guardians demanding greater protection for their children’s digital privacy. And we know children care about this too.

Since the introduction of our Children’s code, we’ve been working to ensure the internet is a privacy-friendly, safe space for children. Specifically in the past year, we’ve been focusing on how social media and video sharing platforms collect and use children’s data.

We want online services to innovate and grow, but this must happen in a way that doesn't expose children to harms. That means taking into consideration the best interests of young people when designing apps and websites. That’s so children, parents and guardians have peace of mind about the privacy implications of their online activities.

Driving change

Our influence and interventions are working. Platforms are listening to our concerns and making changes. Last year we wrote to 11 organisations and spoke with various other platforms to drive further improvements in how they protect children’s privacy.

We’re pleased to report most have improved their approach. For example, X has stopped serving adverts to users under 18s and Sendit has stopped automatically including geolocation information in children’s profiles. These changes are making a tangible difference to how well children’s data is protected online.

There’s more detail on the changes platforms have made and our interventions in our latest Children’s code strategy progress update.

Understanding how our data shapes what we see online

Our free interactions on these platforms may come with a trade-off. From the moment a young person opens an app or plays a video, a large amount of data begins to be gathered to potentially shape the content they are served with. These are called recommender systems, and they can work well, for example to suggest a fun dance routine. But we have concerns where the profile formed based on a child’s personal information may recommend content that is not appropriate for children to see. And we’re not the only ones – 80% of the public told us they agree that platforms should be more transparent with people about how they use personal information to recommend content.

That’s why we need to understand more about this issue. We launched a call for evidence in August 2024 to gather information from stakeholders on the use of children’s personal information in recommender systems, as well as the use of children’s data under the age of 13. The evidence gathered?outlined how recommending content to children could lead to extended online use, and the potential risk of children being exposed to harms.

When we have concerns, we will investigate where necessary. That’s why we have today announced an investigation into how TikTok, one of the most popular platforms used by young people, uses personal information of 13–17-year-olds in the UK in its recommender systems. This includes considering the amount of children’s data collected by the platform and whether children have clear information about how their data is being used. We will examine all the information gathered through this investigation before reaching any conclusions.

This is just part of a wider package of our ongoing work to drive improvements in the way social media and video sharing platforms use children’s data.

Providing an age-appropriate online experience

Age assurance plays an important role in keeping children, and their personal information, safe online. There are tools or measures that can help estimate or verify a child’s age, which then allow services to be tailored to their needs or access to be restricted. Our newly published case studies show the different approaches organisations have taken to age assurance.

As this is a priority for us, we have opened investigations looking at how Reddit and Imgur process the personal information of children in the UK and their use of age assurance measures. Again, we will examine all the information gathered through these investigations before reaching any final conclusions.

Pushing forward

Regulating how children's data is used by digital services is one aspect of a complex international and national online safety ecosystem. We work closely with Ofcom, as the Online Safety Act regulator, and other international organisations to ensure children in the UK have a better digital experience. We will continue our work to drive changes and, where necessary, we will use the full force of our regulatory powers to ensure young people can both benefit from and be safe within the online world.

We believe it is important that children, parents and guardians, in addition to organisations working on their behalf, understand the work we are continually doing. We have provided several updates on our children’s privacy interventions and will continue to adopt this transparent approach as our work progresses.