Reddit has been fined £14.47m by the UK’s data watchdog for unlawfully using children’s personal information.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the platform failed to properly check the age of its users, putting children using Reddit at risk of being exposed to inappropriate and harmful content online.
“It’s concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children,” said John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner.
In a statement, Reddit said it “didn’t require users to share information about their identities, regardless of age, because we are deeply committed to their privacy and safety.”
The ICO said the fine had been levied over “failures” falling between 5 May 2018 to 8 July 2025, when it said Reddit was processing the personal information of children under the age of 13 unlawfully.
The regulator said companies operating online services likely to be accessed by children had a responsibility to protect them, including by making sure the way their data was collected and used did not expose them to risks.
“To do this, they need to be confident they know the age of their users and have appropriate, effective age assurance measures in place,” said Edwards.
“Reddit failed to meet these expectations.”
On 8 July 2025, Reddit started verifying the age of users in order to comply with the requirements of the Online Safety Act (OSA).
But the ICO said the platform relied on asking users to declare their age when opening an account – a technique it said was “easy to bypass” – so said it would continue to monitor the situation.
The ICO first started investigating the platform last March, alongside TikTok and image-sharing site Imgur, over concerns about their use of children’s data.
On Tuesday, the regulator said while Reddit’s terms of service said under-13s were not allowed on the site, its estimates suggested “there were a large number of children under 13 on the platform”.
The regulator concluded the platform had, as a result, processed children’s data without a lawful basis to do so.
Under UK law, companies must take extra care and action when collecting data belonging to child users because they may be less aware of risks that can come with platforms collecting and using it.
The ICO said Reddit “must do better”, adding it was continuing to consider the age assurance controls it had since implemented.
A Reddit spokesperson said: “The ICO’s insistence that we collect more private information on every UK user is counterintuitive and at odds with our strong belief in our users’ online privacy and safety.”
They added that the company intended to appeal the decision.
Growth and scrutiny
Reddit has seen a growth surge in the UK in recent years, with Ofcom ranking it as the 12th most visited site overall and fourth most visited social media platform in the UK in 2025.
When OSA age verification requirements took effect in July 2025, the platform limited the ability of users who had not verified their age to view parts of its services, including some user profiles and subreddits, containing adult material.
The ICO said it would continue to work closely with Ofcom, which enforces the OSA, to coordinate efforts to protect children and their data online.
Ofcom has recently fined several providers of porn sites it found to not have proper age checks in place to stop children accessing adult material.
It handed down its largest fine levied under the OSA to date on Monday.
Social media expert Matt Navarra told the BBC both organisations’ recent actions showed “the UK’s two regulator pincer movement coming into force”.
“You’ve got the ICO pushing children’s data and design expectations, and, in parallel, the UK’s wider online safety laws pushing the industry towards real age assurance as a baseline,” he said.
Navarra added the Reddit fine also marked a turning point in how it was seen and scrutinised by regulators.
“Reddit is being treated less like a quirky forum site and more like what it is – a social platform with major platform responsibilities.”
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