Children increasingly use mobile applications and websites for education, gaming, entertainment, healthcare, shopping and communication. For businesses operating these platforms, Data Privacy Compliance is becoming a product design issue as much as a legal requirement. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 introduce specific safeguards for children's personal data, including verifiable parental consent and restrictions on tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising. For an app or website used by children, privacy compliance cannot be reduced to a privacy policy or consent button. Businesses need to understand what data they collect, how they identify child users, how parental consent is verified, which vendors receive the information and how the data is eventually deleted.

What Data Privacy Compliance Means for Children's Apps and Websites?

Data privacy compliance refers to the legal, organisational and technical measures used by a business to collect, use, store, disclose and delete personal data in accordance with applicable law. For children's platforms, the compliance burden becomes more specific because Indian law gives children enhanced protection.The DPDP Act defines a child as an individual who has not completed eighteen years of age. This is significant for businesses accustomed to international privacy frameworks, where the age threshold for children's consent may be lower. A platform serving teenagers in India therefore needs to consider the Indian threshold when designing its privacy controls. The legal framework is built around the concept of a Data Fiduciary. Broadly, this is the organisation deciding why and how personal data is processed. An app operator, website owner or education platform may fall within this role even when technical processing is performed by third party service providers. The organisation remains responsible for understanding its data processing activities and implementing appropriate safeguards.

Why Children's Data Requires a Different Compliance Approach?

Children may have a different understanding of privacy risks and may be less capable of assessing the long term consequences of sharing personal information. An application may collect a child's name, age, photograph, location, device information, educational records, voice recordings or behavioural information.Some of these details may appear harmless when considered individually. Their combination can create a much more detailed picture of a child. For example, an educational application may know a student's name, school, learning performance, location and usage patterns. A gaming platform may collect information about play behaviour and interaction patterns. A children's social platform may receive photographs, messages and information about social relationships. Businesses should therefore examine the complete data environment rather than reviewing individual data fields in isolation.

What Does the DPDP Act Say About Children's Personal Data?

Section 9 of the DPDP Act contains specific provisions concerning processing of personal data belonging to children. Before processing such data, the Data Fiduciary must obtain verifiable consent from the child's parent or lawful guardian in the prescribed manner. The provision also prevents processing likely to cause a detrimental effect on a child's well being. The Act further prohibits tracking or behavioural monitoring of children and targeted advertising directed at children, subject to prescribed exemptions. This distinction is important. Parental consent is not a blanket permission for every form of processing. Suppose a parent approves an account for an educational application. The business cannot automatically assume the approval permits behavioural profiling or targeted advertising. Each processing activity still needs to be assessed against the statutory restrictions and applicable exemptions. Businesses should therefore design their privacy architecture around the complete lifecycle of children's data.

Understanding Verifiable Parental Consent

A major compliance issue is the difference between ordinary consent and verifiable parental consent. A child clicking an acceptance button does not satisfy the statutory requirement where parental consent is required. The business needs a mechanism capable of establishing the identity and adult status of the person providing consent as the parent or lawful guardian. Rule 10 of the DPDP Rules, 2025 sets out requirements concerning verifiable consent. It requires Data Fiduciaries to adopt appropriate technical and organisational measures and exercise due diligence to establish whether the individual identifying themselves as a parent is an identifiable adult. The Rules contemplate reliance on reliable identity and age information already available with the Data Fiduciary, as well as information voluntarily provided by the parent or qualifying virtual tokens. This gives businesses some flexibility in designing their consent systems. It does not, however, mean every verification method will automatically be sufficient. The business needs to assess whether its process genuinely supports the statutory requirement and whether the information collected for verification is itself handled responsibly.

How Apps Should Approach Age Assurance

Age assurance is one of the practical challenges for child focused platforms. An application may ask a user to enter their date of birth. Yet a simple self declaration may not establish whether the information is accurate. Businesses therefore need to assess the nature of their service, the risks associated with the data being collected and the appropriate method for identifying child users. The objective should not be indiscriminate collection of identity documents. Collecting excessive information merely to prove age can create another privacy risk. A well designed approach should consider proportionality, data minimisation and security alongside the need for reliable age assurance. For some platforms, age information may already be available through a verified parent account. For others, a separate parental verification process may be necessary. The correct approach will depend on the service, user journey and applicable legal requirements.

Privacy Notices Need to Be Designed for Real Users

A privacy notice is often treated as a legal document placed at the bottom of a website. For children's services, this approach is unlikely to be sufficient from a practical compliance perspective. The DPDP framework places emphasis on clear information concerning personal data and the purpose for processing. The Rules also establish requirements concerning notices and consent. Businesses should therefore consider how the privacy information appears during registration, parental verification and subsequent use of the service. The parent should be able to understand what information is collected, why it is needed and how it will be used.The notice should also correspond with the actual technology. If an application says it collects information only to provide educational services but embedded technologies collect additional behavioural information, the organisation may create a significant compliance gap.

Tracking and Behavioural Monitoring Need Particular Attention

Children's applications often rely on analytics. Analytics can help businesses understand which features users prefer, where users leave an application and how the service performs. However, businesses need to distinguish between technical analytics and activities falling within the statutory restriction on tracking or behavioural monitoring of children. The same technology may have different privacy implications depending on how it operates. For example, collecting aggregated technical information for security or service reliability may differ from creating a persistent behavioural profile of an identifiable child for commercial purposes. Product and legal teams should therefore assess analytics tools individually. A privacy review should include software development kits, cookies, pixels, advertising technologies, crash reporting tools and other third party components embedded in the application.

Targeted Advertising to Children

Advertising is another significant area of risk. Section 9 specifically prohibits targeted advertising directed at children, subject to prescribed exemptions. Businesses should therefore examine whether advertising systems use information about child users to determine which advertisements they see. This assessment should not stop with the company's own advertising platform. Third party advertising networks may receive information through software integrated into an application or website. An organisation should know which third parties receive information, why they receive it and whether their processing is compatible with the business's obligations. Advertising contracts and technical configurations should therefore be reviewed together.

Third Party Vendors Can Create Hidden Privacy Risks

Children's apps rarely operate entirely on their own infrastructure. Cloud providers may host databases. Analytics providers may process usage information. Customer support platforms may receive account information. Payment service providers may process transaction details. Communication tools may handle emails, messages or notifications. Each relationship creates a potential data flow. Businesses should maintain a record of relevant vendors and understand the role each vendor plays. Contracts should address confidentiality, security, permitted processing, incident management, deletion and assistance with regulatory obligations where appropriate. The business should also know whether a vendor uses further service providers. This is where data protection rules should be considered alongside the actual technical architecture. Legal documentation should not exist separately from the way the application operates.

Data Minimisation Should Start at Product Design

One of the most effective ways to reduce privacy risk is to avoid collecting unnecessary information. Before introducing a new feature, the product team should ask a simple question: does this feature genuinely require the proposed personal data? A children's learning platform may not need a precise location to deliver a mathematics lesson. A gaming application may not need access to a contact list to provide gameplay. A website may not need a child's photograph simply because an optional profile feature is available. Reducing unnecessary collection limits exposure in the event of unauthorised access and makes compliance easier to manage. Privacy should therefore be considered during product development rather than added after the application has been launched.

Security Safeguards Are Part of Privacy Compliance

Privacy and security are related but distinct. Privacy determines whether personal data is collected and used appropriately. Security focuses on protecting the information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or loss. For children's platforms, both areas require careful attention. The DPDP Act places obligations on Data Fiduciaries concerning reasonable security safeguards. The Act also provides significant financial penalties for specified contraventions. The Schedule includes a penalty of up to ₹200 crore for breach of obligations relating to children. Businesses should therefore consider access controls, secure authentication, encryption where appropriate, vulnerability management, monitoring, secure software development and incident response procedures. Internal access should also be restricted according to business need. A developer does not necessarily need access to a complete database containing children's personal information.

Data Retention and Deletion Should Be Planned Early

A common privacy weakness is indefinite retention. Businesses sometimes retain information because deleting it appears inconvenient or because the organisation may need it in the future. This approach can increase privacy and security exposure. For children's applications, retention should have a clear business and legal rationale. The organisation should understand what information is retained, where it is stored, who can access it and when it should be deleted or anonymised. Deletion should also extend to relevant systems where appropriate. Removing information from the primary database while retaining copies in other systems, backups or third party platforms may leave the business with an incomplete deletion process. A documented retention framework can help avoid this problem.

The DPDP Rules Are Being Implemented in Phases

Businesses should pay close attention to commencement dates. The DPDP Rules, 2025 were notified in November 2025. They establish a phased implementation structure rather than making every provision operational on the same date. MeitY's official materials identify later commencement dates for several substantive requirements. The child specific provisions under Section 9 and Rule 10 are scheduled to commence eighteen months after publication of the Rules. On the notified timeline, this places commencement in May 2027. Businesses should not interpret the future commencement date as a reason to postpone preparation. Changing an application's registration process, consent architecture, databases and third party integrations can take considerable time. Organisations serving children should use the transition period to identify gaps and test their systems.

Building a Practical Compliance Framework for Children's Apps

A strong compliance programme begins with a data inventory. The organisation should identify every category of children's personal data collected through its application or website. It should then map where the information travels, which systems store it and which vendors process it. The next stage is to assess age assurance and parental verification.The business should then review its privacy notice, consent mechanism, analytics systems, advertising technology, vendor contracts, retention practices and security controls. Testing is equally important. A business should test what happens when a child attempts to register, when a parent provides consent, when consent is withdrawn and when a user moves from a child status to adulthood. It should also test unsuccessful verification attempts and incomplete registration journeys. Privacy compliance should be treated as an operational process rather than a one time legal exercise.

How Businesses Can Strengthen Governance

Responsibility should be allocated internally.Product teams need to understand privacy requirements before introducing new features. Developers need clear rules concerning personal data access. Marketing teams should know the restrictions applying to children's advertising. Procurement teams should review third party data processing arrangements. Senior management should also receive visibility into significant privacy risks. A business may have an excellent privacy policy yet remain exposed because its application behaves differently from the policy. Regular reviews can identify such gaps before they become regulatory or commercial problems. For businesses with complex data flows, engaging a best corporate law firm can also help integrate privacy obligations with contracts, technology arrangements, corporate governance and broader regulatory requirements.

Common Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid

One common mistake is treating a date of birth field as complete age verification. Another is assuming parental consent permits every type of data processing. Businesses also sometimes overlook third party software embedded within their websites and applications. Advertising tools, analytics services and software development kits can create additional data flows. Another recurring issue is collecting more information than necessary for age verification. Some businesses also rely heavily on written policies without testing whether their technology actually follows those policies. The strongest approach is to connect legal requirements with product design, technical controls and operational procedures.

Conclusion

Children's data protection requires more than a well drafted privacy policy. For apps and websites used by children in India, businesses need to connect legal requirements with product design, age assurance, parental verification, data minimisation, security, advertising controls, vendor management and retention practices.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What is Data Privacy Compliance for children's apps in India?

It is the process of ensuring an application or website collects, uses, stores, shares and deletes children's personal data in accordance with applicable Indian privacy requirements, including the DPDP Act and DPDP Rules.

Q21. What age is considered a child under India's DPDP framework?

The DPDP Act defines a child as an individual who has not completed eighteen years of age.

Q3. Is parental consent required for children's apps in India?

Section 9 requires verifiable parental or lawful guardian consent before processing a child's personal data, subject to prescribed exemptions.

Q4. Can an app simply ask the child to confirm their age?

A child's own declaration does not replace the statutory requirement for verifiable parental consent where Section 9 applies. Businesses need an appropriate mechanism for identifying and verifying the parent or lawful guardian.

Q5. Can children's apps use behavioural analytics?

Businesses need to carefully assess whether their analytics activities amount to tracking or behavioural monitoring covered by Section 9. The DPDP Act prohibits tracking and behavioural monitoring of children, subject to prescribed exemptions.

Q6. Can businesses show targeted advertisements to children?

Section 9 prohibits targeted advertising directed at children, subject to prescribed exemptions. A business should therefore assess its advertising architecture rather than relying solely on parental consent.

Q7. Do children's websites need a privacy policy?

A privacy notice is an important part of a compliant privacy framework, but a policy alone does not establish compliance. Businesses also need appropriate consent, governance, security, data handling and operational controls.

Q8. When will the child specific DPDP requirements take effect?

The child specific requirements under Section 9 and Rule 10 are scheduled for commencement eighteen months after notification of the Rules in November 2025, placing their scheduled commencement in May 2027. Businesses should verify the latest government notifications before relying on any commencement date.

Q9. What is the penalty for violating children's data obligations?

The DPDP Act provides for significant financial penalties. The Schedule specifies a penalty of up to ₹200 crore for breach of obligations relating to children.

Q10. Should businesses conduct a children's data audit?

Yes. An audit can identify what children's information is collected, how it moves through the organisation, which third parties receive it and whether the existing product architecture supports applicable privacy requirements.

This update was released on 25 Aug 2026.

The views expressed in this update are personal and should not be construed as any legal advice. Please contact us directly on +91 22 40565252 or contact@mhcolaw.com for any assistance.

Legal Update Team
MANSUKHLAL HIRALAL & COMPANY
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