TikTok, Reddit and Imgur investigated by UK watchdog over child privacy concerns

3 March 2025, 12:05 | Updated: 3 March 2025, 12:19

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced it has launched three investigations looking into how TikTok, forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur are protecting the privacy of child users in the UK.

The ICO, the UK's data protection watchdog, launched the probe into how TikTok is harnesses the personal information of 13–17-year-olds to make content recommendations.

Further investigations into Imgur and Reddit are looking at how the platforms use the personal information of child users in the UK, as well as the platforms' use of age assurance measures.

The age assurance measures include how the platform's estimate or verify a child's age, with the result thought to be used to tailor their experience on the platform.

The regulator said it was taking the action in light of growing concerns around how social media platforms were using data generated by children's online activity to power their recommendation algorithms.

It's also looking at the potential for young people to be served inappropriate or harmful content as a result.

The ICO previously introduced a children's code for online privacy in 2021, which requires firms to take steps to protect children's personal information online.

Information commissioner John Edwards told the PA news agency that the regulator expected to find plenty of positive safety elements in place across the sites during its investigation, but wanted to ensure their processes were "robust".

"It's what they're collecting, it's how they work," he told PA.

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"I will expect to find that there will be many benign and positive uses of children's data in their recommender systems.

"I would expect to find there will be elements that are designed to keep children safe and to make sure they only get appropriate thing, and that's all for the good.

"What I am concerned about is whether they are sufficiently robust to prevent children being exposed to harm, either from addictive practices on the device or the platform, or from content that they see, or from other unhealthy practices."

The ICO said its investigations were to look into whether there had been any infringements of data protection legislation, and if any evidence of potential breaches is found, the regulator said it would put it to the platforms and obtain their representations before reaching a final conclusion.

It coincides with online safety regulator Ofcom launching an enforcement programme to assess whether tech firms are becoming compliant with the Online Safety Act.

The regulator said platforms had until March 31 to send Ofcom their first risk assessment, setting out how likely it is users could encounter illegal content on their service.

Ofcom said the accompanying risk assessments from platforms were vital to help sites understand how harm could take place on their services so they could put in place appropriate safety measures.

Under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms are required to follow new codes of practice on a range of topics, including stopping illegal content from appearing on their sites - with fines of up to 10% of turnover or £18 million, whichever is greater, for those who fail to comply.

Speaking on the ICO investigation, Mr Edwards said the regulator was "not picking on TikTok" by making it the subject of an investigation on a topic common across social media, and hoped to understand more about the wider social media landscape through the investigation.

"We've got to choose one - we can't spread ourselves too thinly," he said.

"We're not picking on TikTok.

"We hope to learn lessons that the whole industry will be able to adopt.

"The selection was made based on the direction of growth travel in relation to young users, market dominance and potential for harm.

"But the underlying technology is what's interesting to us and that's present in X, it's present in (Instagram's) Reels, it's present in Snapchat, it's there across the board on digital platforms.

"Now, they're all competing for attention and eyeballs, and so they're using techniques to maximise those." TikTok has been contacted for comment.