EdLaw
ICO Children's Code — the 15 standards of age appropriate design
Age appropriate design: a code of practice for online services — the ICO's statutory code under s. 123 Data Protection Act 2018 (in force 2 September 2020). The blockquoted text of each standard below is the code's normative statement, verbatim; everything else on the ICO pages is explanatory guidance.
1. Best interests of the child
The best interests of the child should be a primary consideration when you design and develop online services likely to be accessed by a child.
2. Data protection impact assessments
Undertake a DPIA to assess and mitigate risks to the rights and freedoms of children who are likely to access your service, which arise from your data processing. Take into account differing ages, capacities and development needs and ensure that your DPIA builds in compliance with this code.
3. Age appropriate application
Take a risk-based approach to recognising the age of individual users and ensure you effectively apply the standards in this code to child users. Either establish age with a level of certainty that is appropriate to the risks to the rights and freedoms of children that arise from your data processing, or apply the standards in this code to all your users instead.
4. Transparency
The privacy information you provide to users, and other published terms, policies and community standards, must be concise, prominent, and in clear language suited to the age of the child. Provide additional specific ‘bite-sized’ explanations about how you use personal data at the point that use is activated.
5. Detrimental use of data
Do not use children’s personal data in ways that have been shown to be detrimental to their wellbeing, or that go against industry codes of practice, other regulatory provisions, or Government advice.
6. Policies and community standards
Uphold your own published terms, policies and community standards (including but not limited to privacy policies, age restriction, behaviour rules and content policies).
7. Default settings
Settings must be ‘high privacy’ by default (unless you can demonstrate a compelling reason for a different default setting, taking account of the best interests of the child).
8. Data minimisation
Collect and retain only the minimum amount of personal data you need to provide the elements of your service in which a child is actively and knowingly engaged. Give children separate choices over which elements they wish to activate.
9. Data sharing
Do not disclose children’s data unless you can demonstrate a compelling reason to do so, taking account of the best interests of the child.
10. Geolocation
Switch geolocation options off by default (unless you can demonstrate a compelling reason for geolocation to be switched on by default, taking account of the best interests of the child), and provide an obvious sign for children when location tracking is active. Options which make a child’s location visible to others should default back to ‘off’ at the end of each session.
11. Parental controls
If you provide parental controls, give the child age appropriate information about this. If your online service allows a parent or carer to monitor their child’s online activity or track their location, provide an obvious sign to the child when they are being monitored.
12. Profiling
Switch options which use profiling ‘off’ by default (unless you can demonstrate a compelling reason for profiling to be on by default, taking account of the best interests of the child). Only allow profiling if you have appropriate measures in place to protect the child from any harmful effects (in particular, being fed content that is detrimental to their health or wellbeing).
13. Nudge techniques
Do not use nudge techniques to lead or encourage children to provide unnecessary personal data or turn off privacy protections.
14. Connected toys and devices
If you provide a connected toy or device, ensure you include effective tools to enable conformance to this code.
15. Online tools
Provide prominent and accessible tools to help children exercise their data protection rights and report concerns.
Meta
Standard statements are reproduced verbatim from the highlighted normative box at the top of each ICO standard page by tools/ico-uk/build_aadc.py. No version stamp exists (the code is unamended since 2020); verify re-fetches all fifteen pages and fails on any change to a statement.