ICO’s Online Privacy Code for Children Comes Into Effect

The Children’s Code has come into effect this month, after two years of work on the data protection law by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The ICO designed a children’s privacy law to set standards for internet services to protect the safety of children. 

The Age Appropriate Design Code, or Children’s Code, was initiated in 2018 to update the data protection law in an effort for the government to constitute substantial children’s privacy standards, Tech Crunch reported. 

The ICO first announced the Children’s Code in January of this year.

The standards for children’s privacy will apply to organisations that design, create or supply apps, social media websites and gaming or streaming services, according to PrivSec Report. The enforcement of Children’s Code will involve organisations that collect and store profile data. 

The 15 standards of the Children’s Code will be enforced and organisations must come into compliance within a year, according to PrivSec Report. The Children’s Code will be regulated and enforced by data protection laws and the ICO.

The U.K. government has become progressively more uneasy about the “datafication” of children as more of them go online often, according to Tech Crunch. Children who spend time online may be too young to consent to be tracked under the current data protection law.

The Children’s Code puts 15 standards in place to protect children’s privacy.

The Children’s Code has been designed to calculate risk above all else and keeps a high privacy default setting to provide top-level protection for children’s data.

The bare minimum of data should be gathered and stored, according to the Code. The Children’s Code also stipulates that children’s data should not be shared unless it is in their best interest.

The ICO’s Children’s Code states that profiling is shut down by default when children use the internet. There are no “nudge techniques” that lead children to input personal data or decrease privacy protections.

Children’s privacy will be guarded by a requirement that online services to automatically administer a level of data protection whenever children go online or download an app or game.

Location settings usually allow the user to be seen wherever they are in the world, but the Children’s Code demands location settings default to being turned off.

The essential consideration of the enforcement of the Children’s Code is that organizations act in the best interest of children who are going online. 

“Personal data often drives the content that our children are exposed to – what they like, what they search for, when they log on and off and even how they are feeling,” Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said on the ICO’s website. “In an age when children learn how to use an iPad before they ride a bike, it is right that organisations designing and developing online services do so with the best interests of children in mind. Children’s privacy must not be traded in the chase for profit.”

Organisations will have a year to conform to the Children’s Code. 

The ICO will be working with organisations to assist them with understanding the code and how it will protect children’s privacy.

What is your opinion on the Children’s Code? Do you think its implementation will be successful in protecting children’s privacy? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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