Reddit has been fined 拢14.47m after an investigation found the company failed to use children鈥檚 personal information lawfully.
The social media platform has 121 million daily users and is home to thousands of communities.
An investigation by the UK鈥檚 Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office (ICO) found Reddit didn鈥檛 apply any robust age assurance mechanism聽and therefore did not have a lawful basis for processing the personal information of children under the age of 13.
The social media platform also failed to聽carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) to assess and mitigate risks to children聽before January 2025.
These failures meant Reddit was using children鈥檚 data unlawfully, potentially exposing them to inappropriate聽and聽harmful content.
John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said:聽鈥淚t’s聽concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children.
鈥淐hildren under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control. That left them potentially exposed to content they should not have seen. This is unacceptable and has resulted in today鈥檚 fine.
鈥淟et me be clear. Companies聽operating聽online services likely to be accessed by children have a responsibility to protect those children by ensuring聽they鈥檙e聽not exposed to risks through the way their data is used.
鈥淭o do this, they need to be confident they聽know the age of their users and have聽appropriate, effective age assurance measures in place.
鈥淩eddit聽failed to聽meet these expectations.聽They must do better and we are continuing to consider the age assurance controls now implemented by the platform.
鈥淩elying on users to declare their age themselves is not enough when children may be at risk and we are focusing now on companies that are primarily using this method.
鈥淚 therefore strongly encourage industry to take note, reflect on their聽practices聽and urgently make any necessary improvements to their platforms.鈥�
Reddit’s terms of service聽prohibited聽children under 13 years of age using its platform, but despite that it did not have measures in place to check the age of users聽accessing its platform聽until July 2025.
The ICO is the UK鈥檚 independent regulator for data protection, and safeguarding children鈥檚 privacy鈥痮nline鈥痠s a priority.