Britain’s privacy regulator has fined social media platform Reddit £14.47 million for breaches of children’s data protection laws, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said on Tuesday.
The ICO found that Reddit failed to properly verify the ages of users on its platform, meaning it had no lawful basis for processing personal information belonging to children under the age of 13. The regulator also said Reddit did not conduct a required risk assessment for children’s data until after January 2025.
The watchdog said Reddit had relied on users to self-declare their age, a method it described as easy to bypass, leaving children potentially exposed to inappropriate content and risks that they could not understand, consent to or control.
John Edwards, the UK information commissioner, said it was “concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children”. He added that companies providing online services likely to be accessed by children must ensure they are confident of their users’ ages and have robust age assurance measures in place.
The ICO said the fine reflects Reddit’s failings in child data protection and forms part of a wider effort to ensure online platforms comply with legal standards designed to safeguard children’s privacy.
Reddit introduced age verification measures in July 2025 and now asks users to declare their age when opening an account, but the regulator said this did not go far enough to protect younger users.
Author: Kieran Seymour