UK AADC Standard 6 — Policies and community standards (ICO Age Appropriate Design Code, statutory guidance under DPA 2018 s 123)
Enforce all published terms, policies, and community standards consistently
Where this comes from
Provision: Standard 6 — Policies and community standards (ICO Age Appropriate Design Code, statutory guidance under DPA 2018 s 123)
Instrument: UK Age Appropriate Design Code
Citation: Data Protection Act 2018 s 123/s 127; ICO Age Appropriate Design Code, Standard 6 — Policies and community standards
Text version: ICO Age Appropriate Design Code (statutory code of practice under Data Protection Act 2018 s 123; in force from 2 September 2020 with a transition period to 2 September 2021 - date not independently verified on the ICO pages), fifteen standards as displayed on ico.org.uk on 2026-09-23. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has amended UK GDPR and the ICO has signalled a revised code: check for a reissued code before relying on this text.
Who it applies to
It applies when all of these are true:
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
- Service allows user-generated content
Scope in the source's own terms
- Service has published terms that apply to children
- Service operates under GDPR (EU scope; block moved from UK-GDPR authorship)
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Content can be flagged (by users and/or automated classifiers) and enters a moderation queue
- Moderation decisions (allow / remove / restrict / escalate) are recorded with reviewer, reason, and timestamp
- Priority/expedited handling exists for illegal content and child-safety categories
- Affected users are notified of moderation actions with a stated reason and appeal path
- Repeat-offender and re-upload prevention is in place where required
Evidence an auditor expects
- Policy documentDocument review
Terms of service and community guidelines
Published terms with child-relevant provisions clearly stated
- Process recordLog analysis
Enforcement action logs
Records of terms enforcement actions demonstrating consistent application
Questions people ask
- Does UK AADC Standard 6 — Policies and community standards (ICO Age Appropriate De… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18; Service allows user-generated content.
- From when does this apply?
- UK AADC Standard 6 — Policies and community standards (ICO Age Appropriate De… applies from 2 September 2021. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Terms of service and community guidelines; Enforcement action logs.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.