The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has urged social media and video-sharing platforms to improve their data protection practices for children.

The move comes as the watchdog meets with international regulators and online services this week and sets out its 2024-2025 priorities for protecting children’s personal information online.

UK information commissioner John Edwards said that social media platforms should assess the potential data harms on their websites and take steps to make sure children's personal information is used appropriately so they are not exposed to online harms.

“Children’s privacy must not be traded in the chase for profit,” he continued. “How companies design their online services and use children’s personal information have a significant impact on what young people see and experience in the digital world.”

Edwards is attending the IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2024 in Washington DC this week, where he will discuss children’s privacy, artificial intelligence and advertising technology.

The commissioner will also visit Seattle and San Francisco to meet with BigTech companies and AI developers, where he will be reinforcing the ICO’s regulatory expectations to the "rapidly expanding generative AI development sector and pushing the dial on its priorities for children’s privacy".

The ICO first set up its Children's code of practice in 2021 and has since been working with online services including websites, apps and games to provide better privacy protections for children.

For 2024 to 2025, the code will focus on default privacy and geolocation settings; profiling children for targeted advertisements; using children’s information in recommender systems; and
using information of children under 13 years old.

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