The Information Commissioner has today (Friday 22 November) submitted the final version of the Age Appropriate Design Code of Practice to the Secretary of State in accordance with the statutory deadline.

The code will need to be laid in Parliament before it takes effect.

Current restrictions in the pre-election period mean that the submitted code will not be published until after a new government is formed.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is unable to offer further comment or consider interview bids.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham blogged about the progress of the code in August. You can read it here:

Background

The Government included provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018 to create standards that provide proper safeguards for children when they are online.

As part of that, the ICO was required to produce a statutory age appropriate design code of practice which has been dubbed the Kids Code.

The code is rooted in existing data protection laws (the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018), that are regulated and enforced by the ICO.

The final version of the code reflects a detailed consultation carried out by the ICO.

The ICO received around 450 responses to the draft code sent out for consultation in April 2019 and has conducted dozens of meetings with trade bodies, industry representatives, campaigners and individual organisations. The views it gathered have helped inform the final version of the code.

Notes for editors:

1. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection and information rights law, upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
2. The ICO has specific responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
3. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new data protection law which applies in the UK from 25 May 2018. Its provisions are included in the Data Protection Act 2018. The Act also includes measures related to wider data protection reforms in areas not covered by the GDPR, such as law enforcement and security.
4. To report a concern to the ICO go to ico.org.uk/concerns.