A third of children have adult social media accounts, UK regulator finds: How can we improve child safety online?

“How old is your child online?”

It’s a question asked of parents by the UK communications regulator Ofcom as it highlights the potential risks to children with adult social media profiles. A new report commissioned by the watchdog finds that “a third of children aged between 8 and 17 with a social media profile have an adult user age”.

The accounts are being set up by entering false dates of birth on the registration pages of the world’s most popular social media platforms. The chart below shows the percentage of children aged 8-12 who told Ofcom’s researchers they had used a false age to sign up for social media accounts.

Most social media channels have age restrictions designed to stop children under 13 from creating their own profiles - but Ofcom’s data suggests these restrictions are easy to bypass. That is less surprising when it becomes clear that many parents are actually helping their children to set up social media profiles before their 13th birthday.

Ofcom’s report says: “Our research tells us that many children, particularly in the younger age range (between eight and 12), had help from their parents or guardians to set up their social media account. In many cases, parents’ motivations include wanting to make sure their child didn’t miss out.”

When children use profiles that portray them as adults, they risk being exposed to inappropriate content increases. Ofcom gives an example of an 8-year-old posing as a 13-year-old.

After five years, the child will actually reach the age of 13 - but social media algorithms will now recognise them as 18 years old. At this point, the platform will lift protections designed to prevent children from seeing inappropriate content.

“Children are increasingly exposed to harmful content,” says Minos Bantourakis, Project Lead of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety. “This includes violent and sexual content, hate speech, and content that can encourage self-harm and suicide. Children are also subject to criminal behaviours, such as online grooming,” says Bantourakis.

Reducing the vulnerability of children to online risks will require a wide range of interventions. The Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety is a public-private partnership that draws together tech platforms and online safety organizations alongside academia, civil society and government in a project to enhance safety in digital spaces.

The Global Coalition for Digital Safety's work focuses on three main areas. The first is establishing a set of global principles for digital safety to ensure human rights, privacy and security. The panel will also work to create a toolkit for designed-in safety interventions that could include content removal, warning labels as well as proactive tactics to improve safety. The third initiative is a digital safety risk assessment framework, which platforms would use to assess digital safety risks and measure the impact of interventions.

Enhancing digital safety will require global consensus and governance around an agreed set of principles and practices. There’s more on this in the video below.

Social media companies say they are stepping up efforts to keep children safe on their platforms. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is creating new tools to prevent children from being harmed. Snapchat allows in-app reporting of harmful content, and Tik Tok has published this guide to help guardians ensure children are safe while using their app.

Perhaps the most immediate and effective interventions to keep children safe online are those made by parents and close family members.

Ofcom has some simple tips to follow to ensure children are not exposed to harmful online content. They include: