Reddit has been fined £14.47m after an investigation found the company failed to use children’s personal information lawfully.
The social media platform has 121 million daily users and is home to thousands of communities.
An investigation by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found Reddit didn’t apply any robust age assurance mechanism 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 carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) to assess and mitigate risks to children before January 2025.
These failures meant Reddit was using children’s data unlawfully, potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content.
John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said: “It’s concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children.
“Children 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’s fine.
“Let me be clear. Companies operating online services likely to be accessed by children have a responsibility to protect those children by ensuring they’re not exposed to risks through the way their data is used.
“To do this, they need to be confident they know the age of their users and have appropriate, effective age assurance measures in place.
“Reddit failed to meet these expectations. They must do better and we are continuing to consider the age assurance controls now implemented by the platform.
“Relying 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.
“I therefore strongly encourage industry to take note, reflect on their practices and urgently make any necessary improvements to their platforms.”
Reddit’s terms of service prohibited 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 accessing its platform until July 2025.
The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection, and safeguarding children’s privacy online is a priority.