As part of Microsoft’s commitment to making sure that products and services comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) they are implementing age requirements for minors to be able to download Office add-ins from the Store.
This change is rolling out now for Outlook and is currently available for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project add-ins.
How does this affect me?
GDPR requires that minors cannot have their personal data sent to parties that their parent or guardian hasn’t approved. The specific age defined as a minor depends on the region where the individual is located.
Regions that have statutory regulations about parental consent include the United Kingdom and the European Union. For those regions, a minor will be blocked (based on the user’s legal age set in Azure Active Directory) from getting any new Office add-ins from the Store and running add-ins that were previously acquired. For countries without statutory regulations, there will be no download restrictions.
What action do I need to take?
To be GDPR compliant an Office 365 admin is responsible for ensuring the most relevant Office build is deployed to your school/organisation. Also, you must declare the legal age group and the ensure parental consent for the users of your organisation as Microsoft does not independently assign/verify these attributes.