TikTok has turned off notifications for children past bedtime, Instagram has disabled targeted adverts for under-18s entirely, and YouTube has turned off autoplay for teen users. The moves follow the introduction of the UK's age appropriate design code, which took legal effect on 2 September.
The code, introduced as an amendment to the Data Protection Act 2018, requires companies to protect children's privacy online or face multimillion-dollar fines. Rather than applying the changes only to the UK, as legally required, the platforms have made them global.
Baroness Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer who introduced the code into law, said the global response proved a mid-sized country such as Britain can have a meaningful effect on the internet. “If one code can create societal change, then actually, what it means is they’re not exempt. This tech exceptionalism that has defined the last decade – ‘we are different’ – just disappears in a puff of smoke,” she said.
Margot James, then digital minister, recalled being persuaded by Lady Kidron's lobbying. “Within half an hour, she had persuaded me of the importance of the code that she had amended the bill to incorporate, and I thought it made a lot of sense,” James said. The code prohibits “nudge” techniques that encourage children to give up more privacy, requires companies to minimise data collected on children, and mandates privacy settings defaulting to maximum security.
Tech companies have largely cooperated, though many deny acting under duress. A Google spokesperson said its updates extended beyond any single regulation, while a Facebook spokesperson said its update “wasn’t based on any specific regulation”. Twitter, however, has not introduced specific changes and declined to answer questions about compliance. The Information Commissioner's Office will decide on enforcement next steps.
