Mike Marshall6 min read
AADC 2026 compliance in plain English
The Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) is UK law. It came into force in September 2023, and every service that processes data from children has been expected to follow it since.
Most tutoring software didn't. TutorStudio did. Here's what that means in plain terms.
What is the AADC?
The AADC is a standard written by the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO). It sets out how digital services should treat children's data. It covers privacy, security, settings, parental visibility, and—critically—how the service persuades children to spend more time and attention on it.
It applies to any service where a child might use it or a child's data flows through it. That includes tutoring platforms, obviously.
Five things TutorStudio does because of it
First: no dark patterns. Dark patterns are design tricks that nudge you into something you didn't mean to do. Dark mode at 2 a.m., notification storms, "You haven't logged in for three days—come back!", "Oops your free trial ran out" surprise charges.
The AADC says children are not a target for this stuff. Neither are the tutors and parents we serve. So TutorStudio doesn't do it. The interface is plain. The defaults don't sneak things past you.
Second: transparent tracking. Most apps and websites follow children (and you) around the web with trackers. They build a profile of what you like so they can sell ads or refine the habit loop.
TutorStudio doesn't do this. We don't embed third-party trackers. We don't sell your data. We don't build a profile to sell ads. We log what happens in the service for safeguarding reasons—audit trails, access logs—but we don't follow you outside TutorStudio.
Third: parental visibility and control. If a young person uses TutorStudio, their parents and guardians need to know what's happening and have a way to control it. TutorStudio builds this in. Parents can see lesson history, view progress notes (with consent), and issue DSRs (data subject requests).
Fourth: settings are visible by default. Most apps hide settings deep in a menu so you think you have privacy when you don't. The AADC says privacy settings should be easy to find and on by default.
In TutorStudio, parental consent is requested explicitly, stored visibly, and easy to withdraw. We tell families up front what data we hold and why. We don't hide it.
Fifth: no algorithmic amplification. TutorStudio has no feed. There is no algorithm working out what to show you next to keep you hooked. You book lessons with tutors you choose. You don't get swiped towards a "trending" tutor. Engagement loops don't exist here.
Why this matters
The AADC isn't just a compliance checkbox. It's written because social media companies had spent a decade optimizing for attention capture. They were good at it, too. Kids were waking at 3 a.m. to check notifications. Teens were developing anxiety disorders around FOMO. The algorithm was winning.
The AADC says: stop. Services that work with children's data have a duty of care. The interface should be helpful, not addictive. Defaults should be safe, not sneaky. Transparency should be the rule, not the exception.
For tutoring, this is straightforward. A child's relationship with a tutor is personal and one-to-one. The platform's job is to get out of the way. Not to maximize engagement. Not to build profiles. Not to monetize attention.
Our audit trail
We've published our AADC audit trail on the website. You can read exactly which principles we map to which features, where we go beyond the minimum, and what we chose not to ship.
If you're a safeguarding professional or a parent, you can read it without needing technical knowledge. If you're building your own service and want to understand what compliance looks like in code, you can see the patterns we chose.
What happens if we drift?
We've written the rules into the product. New features go through a safeguarding audit. We log the decision. If we start to slide—if someone proposes a notification storm or a "trending tutors" feed—the rules catch it. We have to make a conscious choice to break them, and that choice has to be documented.
That's not perfect. But it's a ratchet. Once you've said "we don't do dark patterns," you can't accidentally drift into one.
The short version
TutorStudio is built to the AADC from the start. That means no dark patterns, transparent tracking, parental visibility, visible defaults, and no algorithmic hooks. It's not a sticker we put on the box. It's wired into the code.
If you're a parent or guardian, that means TutorStudio is designed with your family's safety and privacy in mind. If you're a tutor, it means the platform serves your work, not the other way around.