Reddit Fined £14.5 Million for Failing to Protect Children’s Data

In a landmark decision that underscores the growing urgency of child online safety, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has imposed a record-breaking £14.5 million fine on Reddit for serious violations of children’s privacy laws. The penalty, the largest ever issued for a breach involving minors, exposes how the popular social news platform failed to safeguard young users from inappropriate and potentially harmful content.

The ICO’s investigation revealed that Reddit had unlawfully collected and processed personal data from children under the age of 13 without obtaining proper consent or implementing adequate safeguards. Prior to July 2024, the platform relied solely on self-declaration for age verification, a method the regulator found to be dangerously ineffective. Children could easily bypass age restrictions by simply entering false information, leaving them exposed to content they were legally prohibited from accessing.

“Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to, or control,” said John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner. “That left them potentially exposed to content they should not have seen. This is unacceptable and has resulted in today’s fine.”

The ICO’s findings indicate that Reddit failed to conduct a mandatory data protection impact assessment to evaluate and mitigate risks to children before January 2025. This oversight violated the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018, which implements the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards.

Reddit has announced its intention to appeal the decision, arguing that the ICO’s requirements contradict its commitment to user privacy. “The ICO’s insistence that we collect more private information on every UK user is counterintuitive and at odds with our strong belief in our users’ online privacy and safety,” a company spokesperson stated.

The social media giant maintains that it removes users under 13 and does not require users to share identifying information about their identities, regardless of age. Reddit’s user agreement explicitly states that users must be at least 13 years old to use the service.

In response to regulatory pressure and the Online Safety Act, Reddit implemented new age verification measures in July 2024. UK users must now upload a selfie or government-issued ID to access mature content, including pornography. However, the ICO determined these measures came too late to prevent the violations that occurred.

The fine ranks as the third-largest penalty ever issued by the ICO, following a £20 million fine for British Airways after a 2018 data breach affecting 400,000 customers, and an £18.4 million penalty for Marriott Hotels following a 2014 attack that compromised 300 million customer records.

Child rights advocates emphasize that the regulations Reddit violated have been in place since 2018. Colette Collins-Walsh, head of UK affairs at the 5Rights Foundation, criticized the lack of enforcement: “For years, a major global platform relied on little more than a tick-box self-declaration of age, leaving the youngest users unprotected. While the government debates raising age limits online, the regulation needed to prevent exactly this kind of failure has been in place since 2018 and was simply not enforced. New rules mean little if existing ones are not upheld.”

This case highlights the ongoing challenges platforms face in balancing user privacy with child protection requirements. As social media companies continue to expand globally, regulators are increasingly scrutinizing their age verification practices and data protection measures, particularly concerning vulnerable users.

The Reddit fine serves as a stark warning to other tech companies that inadequate age verification and data protection can result in severe financial penalties and reputational damage. It also underscores the critical need for robust enforcement of existing child protection laws in the digital age.

Tags

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