News websites will have to ask readers to verify their age or comply with a new 15-point code from the Information Commissioner’s Office designed to protect children’s online data, the watchdog has confirmed.

Press campaign groups were hoping news websites would be exempt from the new Age Appropriate Design Code, which was published in its final form on Wednesday, to protect vital digital advertising revenues.

Applying the code as standard will mean websites putting privacy settings to high and turning off default data profiling, which would impact behavioural advertising (where ads relate to a user’s recent web searches).