I'm delighted to hear that the Information Commissioner's Office has published the Age Appropriate Design Code. This Code comes as the next step in the online harms agenda and wider government priorities to protect children online.
Simply put, the Age Appropriate Design Code provides guidance for companies on the designs of their websites, apps and connected devices if they are likely to be accessed by children. It supports and enhances our GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) measures to make sure that children are better protected against data collection like location tracking, profiling and maximising their privacy settings where possible. An independent regulator will oversee the duty of care set out by the code and will have strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance.
This follows the Online Harms White Paper, released in April last year, which outlined how the Government aims to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. I think this is an important step in showing the Government's commitment to bringing forward the most comprehensive and coherent approach possible to protecting children online, with the Code playing a key role in delivering this objective.
