Parents should treat their children’s online privacy like stranger danger and road safety, a regulator has warned.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said new research shows three in four parents fear their child cannot make safe online privacy choices.
Some 35% of parents believe their child would “share personal information in exchange for game tokens or rewards”, according to an ICO survey of 1,000 UK parents with children aged four to 11 years in February.
The survey found that 22% of children have shared personal information such as health details with AI tools and 24% have shared their real name or address online, with eight and nine-year-olds most at risk.
The UK’s data protection regulator has launched a campaign to help parents of children aged four to 11 “start simple conversations about protecting their personal information online”.
Online privacy includes children’s name, age, and where they live “but also less obvious information like their browsing history, purchases, photos, voice notes and social media or gaming activity”, the ICO said.
Parents are urged by the ICO’s campaign to treat online privacy as an essential life skill, one “as natural as teaching a child to cross the road”.
The regulator said a single click could “unveil friendships, interests, moods and even sleep patterns, creating a digital footprint that can last forever – or even be exploited by people with bad intentions”.
It added that “many parents feel underprepared”, with 46% of survey respondents stating they “don’t feel confident protecting their children’s privacy online”, 44% “try but aren’t sure they’re doing enough” and 42% “probably don’t spend enough time checking their child’s privacy settings”.
Emily Keaney, ICO deputy commissioner, said “many families have never been shown how to talk to their children about online privacy” and that it “requires a whole society approach”.
Ms Keaney added: “The internet offers amazing opportunities for children – but every click can leave a hidden data trail and these digital footprints can last forever.
“We wouldn’t expect our children to share their birthdays or address with a stranger in a shop, because we’d explain stranger danger to them from a very young age, but kids these days are growing up online.
“We know that where children’s details, like their name, interests and pictures, aren’t protected, the potential risks are serious: unwanted contact from strangers, grooming and radicalisation.”
The ICO said its research suggests online privacy is one of the “least discussed online safety topics” with 21% of parents having never spoken to their children about it and 38% discussing it less than once a month.
In contrast, 90% of parents have discussed screen time in the past month, the ICO said.
Dame Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner for England, said: “We all have a role to play in protecting children from these dangers, many of which we as adults are also still learning to navigate.
“Too often we are playing catch up, this is why it is important that parents feel confident having early, everyday conversations with children about the risks of being online and how to respond if something makes them uncomfortable.
“But we cannot let tech companies off the hook.
“They must be held accountable for putting profits before protections and must be required to design services that prioritise children’s safety and privacy by design, rather than treating children’s safety as an optional tick box exercise, after harm has already occurred.”
According to the survey, 88% of parents think children should start learning about online privacy between the ages of four and 11.
Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet, said: “Many parents are already talking to their children about harmful content or screen time, but privacy often gets overlooked.
“As concerns grow about how children’s data is used online, families are looking for clear, practical guidance to help them start those conversations with confidence.”
The ICO is the UK’s independent data protection regulator and under UK law children’s personal information must be given special protection.
