A third of children with social media accounts sign up with a user age of 18+

A third of children with social media accounts sign up with a user age of 18+:?A study into the use of social media by children has uncovered that a third of social media accounts owned by those aged 17 and under have a user age of 18 and above.

The study by Ofcom observed accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube to find how children are using social media. All the platforms studied had a minimum age limit of 13.

How young people access age-restricted sites

When social media platforms have an age limit, children will input their date of birth incorrectly to gain access. While a third of 8 to 17-year-olds have inputted a user age of 18+ to gain access, 27% have a user age of 16-17, while 41% are registered between 13 and 15, found the study.

Looking at children aged 8 -12 years, two-fifths said they had a social media profile of 16+, with 23% of these having a user age of 18+ online. The majority of 8-12-year-olds, however, have an online age of between 13 and 15 in order to access apps.

When looking at which platform has the most children with an account, the study found that YouTube (including YouTube Kids) has the most 8-17-year-olds (87%), followed by TikTok (62%) and Instagram (47%). Children in this age range also used Snapchat (46%), Facebook (40%) and to a lesser extent, Twitter (20%). Most of the children with accounts on these platforms set up the profile themselves, found the research.

Amongst children aged 8-12 years, YouTube (including YouTube kids) has the most users (86%), followed by TikTok (53%), Snapchat (30%), Facebook (30%) and Instagram (28%), while 13% said they used Twitter.

The online safety bill has been proposed to protect children against harmful posts online.

A spokesperson for the Molly Rose Foundation, said:?“Effective regulation through the online safety bill cannot come too soon. The Ofcom research shows that by allowing children from the age of eight on to their platforms, social media providers fail in a basic duty of care. They have proved unable to control their platforms’ capability to connect our children with distressing and harmful content, resulting in tragic outcomes.”