Reddit fined £14.47M by the UK ICO over children's data
£14.5M
≈ $19.5M at the time
Information Commissioner's Office
United Kingdom · 2026
Status: Under appeal
What happened
The UK Information Commissioner found that Reddit processed the personal data of children under 13 without a lawful basis, because it had no robust age assurance in place, although its own terms barred them. It also found that Reddit had not carried out a data protection impact assessment on the risks its processing posed to children.
The penalty is £10,337,500 for the processing infringements (25 May 2018 to 8 July 2025) and £4,135,000 for the missing impact assessment (25 May 2018 to 31 December 2024). The full penalty notice was published on 19 March 2026.
How it affected users
Until July 2025 anyone could view the platform without an age check, and account holders were only asked to declare whether they were over 18. The ICO estimated that about 226,000 UK children under 13 visited Reddit in 2024; their data was used to shape their feeds and for advertising and analytics, and they were potentially exposed to content unsuitable for children.
Status timeline
Jul 8, 2025
The ICO issued a notice of intent proposing a £17,573,750 penalty.
Feb 23, 2026
Penalty notice of £14,472,500 issued to Reddit, Inc. for infringing Articles 5(1)(a), 6 and 8 and Article 35 UK GDPR.
Apr 1, 2026
The ICO reported that Reddit had appealed the penalty notice to the First-tier Tribunal.
Sources
- ICO: Reddit issued with £14.47m fine for children's privacy failuresregulator
- ICO: Penalty notice, Reddit, Inc., 23 February 2026regulator
Last verified 2026-10-29. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Reddit fined £14.47M by the UK ICO over children's data," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2026-02-24. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/reddit-uk-children-2026/