UK fines Reddit for not checking user ages aggressively enough
TL;DR
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office fined Reddit £14.5 million for lacking robust age verification, leading to illegal use of children's personal data before a 2025 system update.
Source: ars TECHNICA
A UK regulator has fined Reddit £14.5 million ($19.6 million) for not verifying the ages of users. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) alleged that this resulted in Reddit illegally using children’s personal information. “Our investigation found that Reddit failed to 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,” an ICO press release said. The ICO findings are based on Reddit’s actions prior to its Jul. 2025 rollout of a system that verifies UK users’ ages before letting them view adult content. The company still relies on users to declare their ages when opening an account. Full Story