ICO fines Reddit £14.47m over faulty child age checks
Feb 24th 2026
UK data regulator says Reddit relied on easy to bypass self-declared ages and unlawfully processed children's personal information, and the company plans to appeal.
- The Information Commissioner's Office fined Reddit £14.47m for failing to properly verify users' ages and unlawfully using children's personal information.
- The ICO found Reddit relied on self-declared ages when accounts were opened, a method it said was easy to bypass.
- An ICO investigation that began in March and ran alongside probes into TikTok and Imgur concluded Reddit processed data of under-13s without a lawful basis.
- Reddit began age verification in July 2025 to comply with the Online Safety Act but the ICO said the controls since implemented need improvement.
- Reddit says it will appeal and argues that collecting more private information from UK users conflicts with its privacy stance.
- Ofcom enforces the Online Safety Act and has issued separate fines for inadequate age checks on adult sites, reflecting rising regulator scrutiny.