UK AADC Standard 3 — Age appropriate application: age ranges, with Annex B — Age and developmental stages (ICO Age Appropriat…
Implement age-banded service differentiation across 5 recommended age groups
Where this comes from
Provision: Standard 3 — Age appropriate application: age ranges, with Annex B — Age and developmental stages (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 3 — Age appropriate application (age ranges) and Annex B — Age and developmental stages
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
Child audience (designed for OR likely accessed by children) — any one of these:
- Service is specifically designed for children under 18
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
…unless:
- The code's five age ranges are a guide; a provider may use slightly different age groupings if it can justify why they are more appropriate for its service. (ICO AADC Standard 3 - age ranges)
Scope in the source's own terms
- Service is likely to be accessed by children (under 18)
- Service is offered to users in the United Kingdom
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Implementation or documented process meets the reviewed acceptance criteria; identify the tested version and deployment status separately
- Configure defaults from the assessed source and purpose; do not enable data collection or processing merely because this task exists
- Validate behavior for the assessed actors and use cases, including applicable guest or administrator paths
- UI clearly communicates what the feature does to users
- API returns appropriate error codes when feature blocks an action
Evidence an auditor expects
- Policy documentDocument review
Age banding policy defining service differentiation across age groups
Documented policy showing how service features differ for 0-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-17 age groups
- Technical controlTechnical audit
Age-based feature gating implementation
Technical configuration showing feature availability tied to user age band
Questions people ask
- Does UK AADC Standard 3 — Age appropriate application: age ranges, with Annex B —… apply to my service?
- It applies when at least one of: Service is specifically designed for children under 18; Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18. It does not apply where The code's five age ranges are a guide; a provider may use slightly different age groupings if it can justify why they are more appropriate for its service. (ICO AADC Standard 3 - age ranges).
- From when does this apply?
- UK AADC Standard 3 — Age appropriate application: age ranges, with Annex B —… applies from 2 September 2021. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Age banding policy defining service differentiation across age groups; Age-based feature gating implementation.
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.