Children’s Digital Footprints: What the ICO’s Children’s Data Lives – 2025 Report Reveals
When young people go online, they leave behind more than just selfies, memes, and likes. They create digital footprints—traces of their personal information, online habits, and even location—that shape their experiences and identities.
A new report, Children’s Data Lives – 2025, published by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and carried out by Revealing Reality, takes a close look at how children aged 9–17 understand and manage their online lives. The study followed 30 children over several months, watching how they interact with apps, games, and social platforms.
The findings provide a fascinating—and sometimes concerning—window into how today’s young people see their online world.
1. Fun and Popularity Come Before Privacy
Children aren’t thinking about “data rights.” Instead, their choices online are driven by social priorities: fun, connection, popularity, and belonging.
Younger children (9–11) treat apps and platforms as playgrounds—filters, games, and bright designs draw them in.
Older children (12–17) are more focused on their online identity. They want likes, followers, and peer approval, while carefully avoiding embarrassment.
Privacy matters to them, but only when it affects reputation. For example, they may delete “cringe” posts or switch accounts—but if popularity is at stake, most will choose visibility over caution.
2. Location Sharing = Trust
For many children, sharing their location isn’t about risk—it’s about trust and safety.
Apps like Life360 or Snap Maps make location sharing feel like reassurance between friends and families.
Among peers, it’s seen as proof of closeness—if you can see where I am, we’re connected.
The report warns, though, that this habit could make it difficult for young people to step away from location sharing as they grow older, since refusing could be read as a loss of trust.
3. The Invisible Exchange
Children often don’t realise just how much of their personal information is being collected behind the scenes. They see sharing details as a normal transaction for access:
“If I want to use the app, I click accept.”
“It’s just how it works.”
Privacy policies remain long, technical, and hidden away—impossible for most children to understand. Age checks are easy to bypass, and in some cases, parents knowingly help their children to get around them.
4. Parents Worry About Safety, Not Data
Parents are most concerned about the visible risks: grooming, bullying, or inappropriate content. Issues like how a platform uses their child’s information rarely come up in everyday conversations.
While many families set parental controls or time limits, children are often one step ahead, finding creative ways around restrictions. Parents report feeling overloaded—having to research, set up, and monitor rules—while still lacking confidence that they can fully protect their children online.
What This Means for Parents and Educators
The Children’s Data Lives – 2025 report makes it clear: children’s digital experiences are shaped more by friendships and social standing than by abstract privacy rights. Their digital footprints grow in ways that feel normal, even when they may expose children to long-term risks.
As parents and educators, here’s what we can do:
Talk about digital footprints in everyday language. Show children how small actions—liking a post, sharing a photo, using location—add up to an online identity.
Balance safety with independence. Instead of focusing only on blocking and banning, create opportunities for children to make thoughtful choices online.
Push for better design. Platforms must make privacy and consent clear, visible, and relevant to the way children actually live online—not hidden in unread policies.
Final Thoughts
Our children’s online lives are about more than screen time. They are about identity, trust, and belonging—all played out in a digital world that constantly collects and shapes their information.
By understanding the insights from Children’s Data Lives – 2025, we can better guide young people as they learn to protect their digital footprints and grow into confident, savvy digital citizens.
