ICO launches privacy campaign for parents of children

The Information Commissioner's Office has launched a public awareness campaign to help parents support children in making safer choices online. It is the regulator's largest campaign focused on child online privacy.

Macclesfield-based design agency Nexer Digital designed and built the campaign's online hub as the ICO's digital delivery partner. Called Switched on to privacy, the campaign targets parents and carers of primary school-aged children and is built around the prompt "chat, choose, check".

Research cited by the ICO found that 75% of parents are concerned their children are not making safe decisions online. The campaign aims to encourage more regular conversations about privacy between adults and children.

The online hub was built within the ICO's existing website infrastructure. Project details show the work began in December 2025 and was delivered in two phases, starting with a mobile-first prototype tested with parents and carers before being developed into a live service.

The service runs on the ICO's existing Umbraco platform. It was built to WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility standards and includes features already used across the regulator's site, such as Welsh language translation and site search, while maintaining a separate campaign identity.

Digital build

The campaign also sits alongside the ICO's Children's code, which requires organisations to prioritise children's privacy and apply high levels of data protection by default. Alongside raising awareness, the initiative is intended to influence behaviour by giving parents practical tools and guidance they can use.

Nexer Digital also added analytics tools to show how users interact with campaign material. The ICO can track activity including downloads, bookmarks and shares to identify which resources are most useful to parents preparing for conversations about online privacy.

Simon Wissink, Account Director and Partner Manager at Nexer Digital, said: "Working with the ICO on such an important and high-profile campaign has been a valuable opportunity for our team. The challenge was to create an experience that is not only accessible and easy to use but genuinely empowers parents to take action. Through user research and iterative design, we've built a platform that supports meaningful engagement and can evolve with future campaigns."

The project adds to a broader relationship between the two organisations, with Nexer Digital serving as the ICO's digital delivery partner since 2025. Founded in 2007 and formerly known as Sigma, the agency works across research, design and development projects for public, private and not-for-profit organisations.

Parent focus

This campaign focuses on parents of younger children rather than children themselves. By targeting primary school-aged users, the ICO is addressing a stage when many families are beginning to engage more regularly with apps, games, connected devices and online services used by children.

Craig Wyna, Head of Digital at the ICO, said: "Switched on to privacy is about giving parents the confidence and tools they need to support their children in navigating the digital world safely. Nexer Digital has played a key role in bringing this vision to life through a platform that is accessible, engaging and built around user needs."

The scale of the campaign is notable for the ICO, which has increasingly combined regulation with public-facing education on data use and privacy. The 75% figure from the campaign research underlines the level of concern among parents about children's online decision-making and gives the regulator a clear public information brief.

For Nexer Digital, the project also reflects demand for digital public services that combine accessibility standards, user testing and measurement tools in a single service. The campaign hub was designed not only to host guidance but also to give the ICO a clearer view of how people use the content, including whether they save or share it.

The agency is part of the wider Nexer Group, a Swedish technology company with more than 2,300 staff worldwide. In the UK, it has worked with organisations including NHS England, AstraZeneca and the Department for Education.

The campaign is intended to help parents have regular privacy conversations with their children using the "chat, choose, check" framework.