More websites, mobile apps for children collecting personal data, study finds

Almost half of the platforms examined deployed some forms of age assurance, the investigation found.

Photo: Winson Wong A global investigation involving Hong Kong authorities has found that more websites and mobile apps designed for children are collecting personal data – ranging from phone numbers to addresses – than they did 10 years ago.

The 2025 Global Privacy Enforcement Network Sweep, which included the participation of Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, examined 876 websites and mobile apps specifically designed for children across multiple sectors in early November, including education, gaming, social media and video streaming. “As the cognitive abilities of children are still developing, they may not fully understand their personal data privacy rights and are therefore more vulnerable to privacy risks arising from less privacy protective settings and design features of websites and mobile apps,” Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said on Wednesday.

The investigation found that while some platforms have adopted good practices to protect children and their personal data, more online services now require users to provide their personal data to access the full functionality of the platform compared with 2015, raising concerns about children’s privacy.

Last year, 41 per cent of platforms required users to provide their names, up from 29 per cent in 2015.

About 20 per cent needed to give their phone numbers, up from 12 per cent a decade ago.

More platforms also asked for users’ addresses and photos or videos.

As many as 85 per cent of the platforms indicated in their privacy policies that they may share children’s personal data with third parties, a substantial jump from 51 per cent in 2015.

Almost half of the platforms deployed some forms of age assurance, which represented a 30 per cent increase from 2015.

However, more than 70 per cent could have the age assurance measures circumvented because they only asked for self-declaration.

More than one-third did not provide an accessible way to delete accounts, although the figure represented a substantial improvement on 71 per cent in 2015.

Privacy chief Ada Chung says the best interests of children should come first.

Photo: Jelly Tse Meanwhile, almost 60 per cent required users to provide an email address to access all functions, with 46 per cent requiring geolocation.

More than 90 per cent had privacy policies in place, but only 56 per cen

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