Age-appropriate design code of practice

What is it?

The ICO's age appropriate design: a code of practice which sets out 15 standards of age appropriate design for online services like apps, connected toys, social media platforms and online games.

Standards include:

• The best interests of the child – services will need to consider how they can keep children safe from exploitation risks amongst other things.
• Geolocation – services will need to switch off geolocation options by default.
• Parental controls – services that provide parent controls will need to give the child age appropriate information about this, and provide an obvious sign to the child when they are being monitored.
• Profiling - services that include options that use profiling will need to be switched off by default (unless they can demonstrate a compelling reason). If profiling is allowed, appropriate measures should be in place to protect the child from harmful effects.

The ICO will have a statutory duty to take the provisions of the code into account when enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. It is also likely to take more severe action against a company that has placed a child at a high level of risk of harm than would be the case for other types of personal data.

Where to find it

The code of practice can be found on the ICO's website.

The code is likely to come into force in early 2021.