Improving online privacy for 10.5 million young people

Our Children’s code is making the internet a privacy-friendly, safe space for young people.

98% of young people (age 3-17) have access to the internet at home. We’re making sure their privacy rights are respected. As a direct result of our regulatory intervention: 

• X has stopped serving adverts to users under 18; removed the ability for under 18s to opt in to geolocation sharing; improved the public transparency materials available for under 18s; and created a dedicated help centre for child users and parents.
• Sendit has stopped automatically including geolocation information in children’s profiles, while BeReal has stopped allowing children to post their precise location online. These changes can help keep children safer in the physical world.  
• Dailymotion has implemented new privacy and transparency measures encouraging children not to share personal information
• Viber has committed to turn off personalised advertising for children, ensuring that children’s default advertising experience is not based on their behavioural data or profiles.   

We work with organisations to explain the law and show them how to improve their approaches. And where companies don’t follow the law, we use our powers. We fined TikTok £12.7m in 2023 for misusing children’s data, and we’re currently investigating how TikTok uses 13–17-year-olds' personal information to make recommendations to them, as well as how Reddit and Imgur use UK children’s personal information and their use of age assurance measures.

We are monitoring platforms yet to introduce improvements, to ensure that they implement their planned changes as expected. We are also pushing for further improvements in practices that do not comply with the law or conform to the Children’s code. 

We stand ready to open further investigations, progressing to formal enforcement action, where appropriate. Our work to drive further improvements in children’s privacy will continue in 2025/26.