Reddit has been fined more than £14m by the Information Commissioner's Office for failing to keep children safe.
It is the largest fine ever handed out by the information watchdog over children's privacy issues.
An investigation by the data protection watchdog found the US company used children's information unlawfully.
A statement from the ICO said Reddit's failings included not checking the age of users accessing its platform, putting youngsters at risk.
It said 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.
• Carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) to assess and mitigate risks to children before January 2025.
Earlier this month, Imgur owner MediaLab was handed a £250,000 fine for similar issues.
https://news.sky.com/story/reddit-fined-14m-by-information-commisioners-office-over-age-verification-checks-13511472
I wonder if this will mean the end of UK access to Reddit? This new law really needs reviewing, despite it's good intentions.
Quote from: Simon on Feb 24, 2026, 14:02:40I wonder if this will mean the end of UK access to Reddit?
That's the most likely outcome which will be good news for VPN providers.
Whilst I get the good intentions, this Online Safety Act really needs a rethink. It must be affecting a darn sight more of the population than it's actually aimed at.
It's the same as any other prohibition, it will never achieve its stated purpose and in this case I suspect the payload will far out way the intended safeguards.
Children will have more access than they had before via the use of free VPNs and Tor which grants access to the so called dark web. Adults verifying their identity using facial recognition and official documents are putting themselves at real risk in more ways than you can imagine and in the end more important content providers will simply block the UK.
It should be the parent in conjunction with the device manufactures that place restrictions on children's internet use.
Quote from: zappaDPJ on Feb 24, 2026, 20:51:25That's the most likely outcome which will be good news for VPN providers.
...which are the next on the radar, I believe.
Quote from: nowster on Feb 25, 2026, 14:50:36...which are the next on the radar, I believe.
They are definitely looking at it but I don't think they really understand the impact that could have. As an example it's possible Google could pull out of the UK and add us to its repressive county list which would damage our economy.
Quote from: zappaDPJ on Feb 25, 2026, 17:10:29They are definitely looking at it but I don't think they really understand the impact that could have. As an example it's possible Google could pull out of the UK and add us to its repressive county list which would damage our economy.
As someone who uses a few VPNs for their original purpose (linking private networks) I'm concerned that a sledgehammer approach would break a lot of things.
I've never used the commercial "appear like you're in Outer Elbonia" ones. The "I don't trust this random WiFi network" reasons don't hold water as most traffic is already encrypted (thanks Let's Encrypt) and DNS tunnelling (over TLS or HTTPS) is mainstream.
Even our internet connections (if using OpenReach) are provided using a VPN-like technology (L2TP) although there is not usually any encryption involved in that.
WiFi calling relies on IPSec which is a VPN technology.