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Children's data · 7 min read

Children's data under the DPDP Act and Rules

The DPDP Act defines a child as an individual under eighteen. Services likely to involve children need a product-level approach to age assurance, parental consent and prohibited processing—not a paragraph added to a privacy policy.

Published 2 August 2026By DPDP Academy Editorial · Legal education and implementation guidanceReviewed by DPDP Academy Source Review · 2 August 2026

Identify where age changes the journey

Map direct sign-up, invited users, household accounts, school or employer deployments and offline-to-online journeys. The right age-assurance method depends on the context and the risk of processing.

Avoid collecting excessive identity data merely to establish age. The verification method should be proportionate and designed with security, retention and accessibility in mind.

Verify the parent or lawful guardian

Section 9 requires verifiable parental consent before processing a child's personal data, subject to notified exemptions. Rule 10 describes due diligence using reliable identity and age details or an authorised entity or virtual-token mechanism.

Keep evidence that connects the verified adult, the child, the notice version, the purpose and the consent action without retaining unnecessary identity material.

Enforce the prohibitions in the product

The Act prohibits processing likely to cause detrimental effect on a child's well-being and restricts tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising directed at children.

These are data-flow controls. Review analytics SDKs, advertising audiences, recommendation systems, experimentation platforms and processor defaults. A policy cannot override what the product continues to send.

Sources and editorial review

Prepared by DPDP Academy Editorial (Legal education and implementation guidance). Reviewed by DPDP Academy Source Review using the sources below on 2 August 2026. Statutory text, notified Rules and practical interpretation are kept distinct. Educational content, not legal advice.

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