Children’s Mobile Games Face Increased Scrutiny Over Online Privacy Protections

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced it will examine how popular mobile games played by children in the UK protect their online privacy.

With around 90% of UK children playing games on digital devices, the ICO will launch a monitoring programme focusing on 10 widely used mobile games. The review will assess whether these games comply with requirements on default privacy settings, geolocation controls and targeted advertising. Any additional privacy concerns identified during the process will also be considered.

Privacy Standards

The increased focus on mobile games follows progress made in improving children’s privacy standards across social media and video-sharing platforms as part of the ICO’s Children’s code strategy.

Interventions under the strategy have led social media and video-sharing services to improve their data protection practices, changes that have already reached more than three million children, with the potential to benefit up to 11.7 million children across the UK.

UK Information Commissioner

“Children’s online experiences are shaped not only by social media and video-sharing platforms, but also by the games they play.

“Our early review suggests that design features in many mobile games can be particularly intrusive, raising important questions about how these games are built, how children experience them, and whether they meet the standards set out in the ICO’s Children’s code.

“We are expanding our strategy to ensure mobile games are held to the same high standards of data protection that we expect across other online platforms.”

Additional Resources

To learn more about Data Protection, consult the Handsam Quick Guides by using the Topic Tag DATA PROTECTION. Handsam also offers a range of Data Protection policies, and you can reach out to us at 03332 07037 or email info@handsam.co.uk for further details or pricing.

Parental Worries

New research shows that 84% of parents are worried about their children’s potential exposure to strangers or harmful content through mobile games, including half (50%) who say they are “very concerned”.

Concerns about personal data are also widespread. Three in four parents say they are worried about children sharing personal information (76%) and about data being collected by game companies to deliver targeted advertising (75%).

In addition, 30% of parents say their child has stopped using a mobile game because either the parent or the child was concerned about the data being collected or how that information was used.