Mr Edwards said California, which hosts the HQs of some of the biggest tech firms in the world, was already introducing a UK-style children’s code, with the bill’s first reading in the state’s assembly on April 19. The Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Australia are bringing in similar measures.

“We’re calling for our code to be used as a worldwide model for regulation,” said Mr Edwards, who will set out his proposals at the International Association of Privacy Professionals summit in Washington.

“We knew from the moment we started drafting our code that its value in keeping children safe would depend on how the code was received internationally.

“The digital world is borderless, and so many of the online services children access are based outside of the UK. The more other countries require companies to protect children’s data, the more children in the UK are protected.

“And the UK has an opportunity to influence real change based on the world-leading code we developed. We’ve seen rapid changes in how UK children are protected online following the expectations set in our code.

“Targeted and personalised ads are being blocked for children; children’s accounts set to private by default, plus location history turned off by default. Games and video streaming have geolocation unavailable or off by default.

“Social media platforms have security measures in place to reduce risks to children. These are some of the types of changes we want to see on a global scale.

“And there’s more to be done to assess the correct ages of children, give them privacy notices they understand, and stop the creating of profiles using their personal data.”

The Telegraph has campaigned for the last three years for a statutory duty of care to protect children online. The children’s code, introduced more than a year ago, will be followed by online safety laws that will introduce new offences to combat criminal and other harms on the internet.