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A third of children aged five to seven use social media without supervision in the United Kingdom and a quarter of them have a smartphone, according to a study published Friday by the British media regulator.
While 42% of parents say they use social media with their young children, 32% say they do so independently, according to Ofcom’s annual report on children’s relationship with the media.
The proportion of parents who say they would allow their children to have a profile on a social network before they reach the required age has increased (30% compared to 25% last year).
“While parents’ concern in some areas has increased significantly, their enforcement appears to be waning, in part due to resignation about their ability to intervene in their child’s online life.“, underlines Ofcom.
The organization notes that if the balance between benefits and risks remains positive in the eyes of parents, they speak of increasing uncertainty.
While the debate is lively in the United Kingdom on how to regulate children’s access to technologies, the use of social networks among 5-7 year olds has generally increased since last year – 38% against 30% – with marked growth in Whatsapp, TikTok, Instagram and Discord, as well as that of online games, which now reaches 41%, compared to 34% last year.
Around a quarter of 5-7 year olds have a smartphone, while 76% use a tablet.
Three quarters of parents of children in this age group who use the internet say they have spoken with them about online safety (76%).
The study also reveals that a third of 8-17 year olds say they have seen disturbing or harmful content in the last 12 months, but only 20% of parents say their children have told them they saw something online that scared them. or worried at the same time.
Girls are more likely than boys of the same age to be confronted with harmful interactions online, whether via messaging applications (20% versus 14%) or social networks (18% versus 13%).
Nine in ten children aged 8 to 17 who use the internet remember having at least one lesson at school on online safety, with three quarters believing it was useful to them. This proportion rises to 97% among the 30% of children who have such lessons on a regular basis.