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Children's Code (Age Appropriate Design Code)

Max Penalty

£17.5m or 4% of global turnover

Statutory code of practice containing 15 standards that online services likely to be accessed by children must follow. Covers everything from data minimisation to nudge techniques, requiring "best interests of the child" as a primary design consideration.

Key Points

15 standards covering the full lifecycle of children's data

Applies to any service "likely to be accessed by children"

Default settings must be privacy-protective ("high privacy by default")

Profiling of children is restricted unless there is a compelling reason

Nudge techniques must not be used to encourage data disclosure

Geolocation data must be off by default for children

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