The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is set to enforce new rules to protect child data.

The regulation, called the Children’s Code or Appropriate Design Code, is set to come into play after the initial one year’s grace period.

The proposals will restrict organisations from tracking children’s location, providing personalised content or advertising, or giving them “behavioural nudges”.

Breaches of the code will carry the same penalty as that of GDPR - €20 million or four per cent of annual global turnover – whichever is greater.

One in five UK internet users are children according to the original guide to the watchdog’s legislation, but they are using an internet that was “not designed for them” in the words of the ICO.

The ICO said children described data practices at social networking and gaming websites as “nosy”, “rude” and a “bit freaky” in its research.

The news comes as some US senators have called on US BigTech firms to adopt the ICO’s regulation voluntarily earlier this month.

The number of online grooming cases recorded by police increased by around 70 per cent in the past three years, reaching an all-time high in 2021 according to the NSPCC.

In May, an Oxford university study found little evidence for any increases in the associations between adolescents’ engagement with technology and mental health.

“We have identified that currently, some of the biggest risks come from social media platforms, video and music streaming sites and video gaming platforms,” said Stephen Bonner, executive director of regulatory futures at the ICO. “This may include inappropriate adverts; unsolicited messages and friend requests; and privacy-eroding nudges urging children to stay online.”

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