Reddit fined £14.5m in UK over use of under-13s’ data

Information Commissioner's Office imposes largest fine yet for a breach of children's privacy

The UK information regulator has fined the social news service Reddit 14.5m for using the data of children under the age of 13 unlawfully and potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content.

The hefty punishment from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the largest fine yet for a breach of children's privacy and comes after the US-based company introduced age checks in July, including age verification to access mature content. Prior to this, the ICO said, there were a large number of children under 13 on the platform and Reddit did not have a lawful basis for processing their personal information".