On April 3, 2024, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced that it had published its 2024-2025 Children's code strategy for protecting children's privacy online. The ICO explained that the strategy sets out the priority areas that social media and video-sharing platforms need to improve on in the coming year, as well as how the ICO will continue to enforce the law and ensure compliance with the Children's code.

What are the areas of focus?

Specifically, the strategy highlights the following areas of focus for the ICO in the coming year:

• default privacy and geolocation settings: the ICO noted that children's profiles should be private by default and geolocation settings should be turned off by default to protect children's physical safety and mental well-being;
• profiling children for targeted advertisements: the ICO recommended profiling be disabled by default unless there is a compelling reason for its use, to protect children's autonomy and prevent financial harm;
• using children's information in recommender systems: the ICO explained that the use of children's information in algorithmically generated content feeds, can lead to exposure to harmful content and encourage extended platform use; and
• using information of children under 13 years old: with children under 13 unable to consent to the processing of their personal information, the ICO highlighted the importance of gaining parental consent and using age assurance technologies to protect young users.

Further measures

Additionally, the strategy noted that the ICO would:

• gather evidence, engage with stakeholders such as parents and organizations, and enhance its supervision and enforcement efforts to tackle privacy risks facing children;
• conduct audits on the use of educational technology in schools to understand privacy challenges and ensure data protection compliance; and
• collaborate with other regulatory bodies and international partners to regulate the internet effectively.

You can read the press release here and the strategy here.