Age-Appropriate Design Codes

The Age-Appropriate Design Code is a data privacy and safety design framework that requires online services and products that children and teens are likely to access to protect their safety and privacy in an age-appropriate way. This means setting high safety and privacy settings by default, prohibiting harmful design features, and limiting the collection, use, and sharing of personal data.

The AADC places the responsibility for safely designed online products on tech companies instead of parents and youth. The model policy also increases consumer choice by requiring easy to use default settings and increasing the online safety tools available to consumers.

In the US, AADC legislation has been passed and signed into law in Maryland in 2024 and California in 2022. It has been introduced in various forms in a dozen states including Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, Minnesota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Washington. The AADC model was originally passed in the UK where companies have enacted hundreds of design changes since the law went into effect in September 2021.