ICO reports progress on edtech privacy recommendations as research flags parent-child digital gap
Key Takeaways
- 01The ICO has published research indicating a growing gap between parental confidence and children’s real online experiences.
- 02The regulator updated its children’s privacy strategy to support stronger protection of children’s personal data in digital services.
- 03The ICO says 98% of 596 recommendations made to 28 education-technology providers have been acted upon.
- 04Edtech providers and education bodies face continued ICO scrutiny of how children’s and pupils’ data are handled.
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published new research on children’s online privacy and updated its children’s privacy strategy. The ICO said the research shows a widening gap between parents’ confidence in managing children’s digital lives and children’s actual online experience.
The strategy update is intended to strengthen children’s privacy protections in digital services. It highlights the ICO’s engagement with education-technology providers, whose products can process significant amounts of pupil data.
The ICO reported that 98% of its 596 recommendations to 28 edtech providers have been acted upon. The recommendations concern providers’ handling of children’s personal information and signal continued regulatory attention on whether digital services are designed and operated in line with UK data-protection requirements.
For edtech suppliers, the update underlines the need to maintain clear, child-appropriate privacy practices and to respond promptly to ICO engagement. Schools and other education bodies using these services should remain attentive to how providers collect, use and protect pupils’ data. The announcement also reinforces the ICO’s wider focus on the gap between adult assumptions about online safety and children’s real digital environments.