- Company
- Regulator or court
- Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
- Law
- UK GDPR (lawful basis for children's data; data protection impact assessment)
- Status
- Under appeal (Reddit has appealed to the First-tier Tribunal)
What happened
Reddit's rules said under-13s could not use the site, but it had no real age checks, so it handled children's data without a lawful basis. The ICO estimated around 226,000 UK under-13s visited the platform in 2024, and Reddit had not done a proper risk assessment for teenage users before January 2025. Reddit added age checks in July 2025, but the ICO said simply asking users their age is easy to get around.
Sources
ICO press releaseICO penalty notice (PDF)Summary in our own words. General information, not legal advice.