Can I issue badges to children under the age of 13?

Find out more about issuing digital badges to children.

Under GDPR, only people aged 13 and over can consent to their own data sharing. Please see the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website or our Earner Personal Data, Consent and GDPR for Issuing Digital Badges guide for more information on the sharing of children's data.

What does this mean for me?

Whether you can issue badges to children under the age of 13 depends on:

  • Your ability to gain consent from a parent / guardian.
  • Which issuing platform your organisation uses.

Credly

  • Written consent from a parent or guardian must be obtained for issuing to children aged 11 - 12.
  • Credly does not support issuing badges to children under the age of 11.
  • If you need to gather written consent to issue to children aged 11+ you may like to use this letter template to contact parents / guardians.

Navigatr

  • Navigatr does not support issuing badges to children under the age of 13.                        

Open Badge Factory (OBF)

  • Consent from a parent or guardian must be obtained when issuing to children under the age of 13.

Can I issue badges to a parent / guardian on an earner's behalf?

Please see Can I issue badges to a parent / guardian on an earner's behalf? for more information.

Don't hesitate to get in touch at info@badgenation.org if you would like to discuss any of the above with us further.