Report from the BBC
In Brief – The UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has fined Reddit more than £14 million for failing to adequately enforce its rules regarding children under 13 accessing the platform. Following an investigation, the ICO concluded that Reddit relied too heavily on self-declaration for some age-based purposes, an “honour system” that the regulator found insufficient and could expose children to inappropriate and harmful content. Information Commissioner John Edwards said, “Relying on users to declare their age themselves is not enough when children may be at risk,” adding, “I strongly encourage industry to take note, reflect on their practices, and urgently make any necessary improvements.” Reddit said that they will appeal the decision and that they are deeply committed to the privacy of UK users, adding, “the ICO’s insistence that we collect more private information on every UK user is counterintuitive and at odds with our strong belief in our users’ online privacy and safety.”
Context – Reddit, like many large online platforms, announced last summer that they would begin using technical age verification in the UK to bring their services into compliance with the Online Safety Act (OSA). To access restricted content, such as sexually explicit posts, Reddit said that users would need to upload a selfie or government-issued ID through a third-party age verification service provider to show that they were at least 18 years old. This ICO ruling focuses on a different Reddit age rule, the fact that users must be 13 to access the platform. Reddit only requires users to declare that they are over 13 when they sign up. The ICO calls that method “easy to bypass” and says young users can get on and be exposed to dangerous content. Online age limits and checks are globally on the march and gaining steam, with the UK near the front of the pack. Social media laws often focus on teens under 15 or 16, while porn site age verification focuses on adults. Face scans are known to be less reliable for young teens than for adults, and many teens don’t have government IDs or credit cards.