AI and Kids' Privacy: What Data Are Apps Collecting?

“Free” kids’ apps are rarely free. When there’s no price tag, the product is often the data — and with AI tools, kids are handing over more than ever: what they type, what they upload, how they behave. Here’s how to think about it as a parent, without needing a law degree.

What apps can collect

Not all of this is sinister — some is needed to run the app. The question is always how much and why.

• What your child types and uploads — messages, photos, drawings, voice recordings. AI tools may store these and use them to train their systems.
• Identifiers — device ID, location, and advertising IDs that follow a child across apps.
• Behavioral data — what they tap, how long they stay, what keeps them hooked.
• Contacts and microphone/camera access — sometimes requested far beyond what the app actually needs.

What a kid-safe app should do

Use this as your checklist:

• Collect as little as possible. A good kids’ app asks for the minimum it needs to work — and can explain why for each item.
• No third-party ad tracking. No advertising SDKs quietly profiling your child.
• No selling or sharing data. Especially not to advertisers or data brokers.
• A real privacy policy written in plain language, with a clear “for parents” section.
• Parental controls — the ability to see and delete your child’s data.

What the law requires (the short version)

You don’t need to memorize these, but it helps to know they exist:

• COPPA (US) requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal info from children under 13, and limits how that data is used.
• GDPR / “GDPR-K” (EU/UK) sets a similar bar — a child-appropriate age of consent, data minimization, and strong rights to access and delete.

The practical upshot: a serious kids’ app treats compliance as the floor, not the ceiling — and says so openly.

Red flags to watch for

• The app is free, packed with ads, and vague about how it makes money.
• It asks for permissions it clearly doesn’t need (a drawing app wanting contacts and location).
• The privacy policy is missing, generic, or copied from an adult app.
• There’s no way for you, the parent, to see or delete what it collected.

A 2-minute parent check before installing

1. Read the App Store “Data this app collects” / Play Data Safety section.
2. Skim the privacy policy for a kids/parents section and the words “we do not sell.”
3. Check the permissions it asks for — do they match what the app does?
4. Look for a parent dashboard and a delete-my-data option.

If an app passes those four, it’s probably taking your child’s privacy seriously. If it can’t, that tells you something too.

Talk to your kid, too

Tools change; habits last. Teach the simple rule: “Don’t tell an app anything you wouldn’t tell a stranger” — no full name, school, address, or photos without a grown-up. That one sentence does more long-term good than any single app setting.

We built ThinkaBit to clear this bar ourselves: COPPA-minded, no third-party ad tracking, no selling data, with a parent dashboard — and we teach kids 7–12 to protect their own privacy as part of the game. Join the waitlist to be first to play.