London (AFP) – Britain’s data watchdog on Tuesday said it has fined online discussion site Reddit £14.5 million ($19.5 million) over failures to protect children’s personal data, potentially exposing them to harmful content. The Information Commissioner’s Office said the US-based company failed to check children’s ages properly and did not complete a required risk assessment for children before January 2025.
“These failures meant Reddit was using children’s data unlawfully, potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content,” the ICO said in a statement. Reddit said it plans to appeal the decision. The watchdog launched an investigation into Reddit in March 2025 over its age assurance measures and personal information use. Social media platform TikTok and image-hosting website Imgur were also targeted by the data protection regulator’s investigation, prompting Imgur in September to block access for viewers in the UK.
The ICO found that while Reddit prohibits children under 13 from using its platform, it did not have any measures in place to check users’ ages until July 2025. “Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control,” John Edwards, the UK information commissioner, said in a statement on Tuesday. The watchdog said it will keep Reddit’s age assurance measures under review as part of its broader policy of monitoring companies that rely on users to self-declare their age.
A Reddit spokesperson said the company “doesn’t require users to share information about their identities, regardless of age, because we are deeply committed to their privacy and safety.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is ramping up efforts to protect children online, having launched a consultation on a social media ban for those under the age of 16. The government has also moved to tighten its online safety laws following an outcry over sexualized deepfakes created by Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok.
© 2024 AFP
