Reddit fined £14m over children's data protection failures

SOCIAL media platform Reddit has been fined £14.47m by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after a probe found it unlawfully processed children’s personal data.

- SASKIA KOOPMAN

The platform was also found to have failed to implement adequate age checks.

The UK data protection regulator said the US-based company did not implement robust age assurance measures, meaning it had no lawful basis for processing the data of children under 13 on its platform.

It has also failed to carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) to assess and mitigate risks to children before the January 2025 deadline. The ICO said these shortcomings left children potentially exposed to inappropriate and harmful content.