Children are leading secret lives on social media by creating fake accounts, a new study has found.
And youngsters are also defying age restrictions to use social platforms, regulator Ofcom found during its research into how people in the UK use and understand media. The survey found that children as young as three were using social media, in what Ofcom calls a "rise of the TikTots".
Their report said: "Many children could be using private social media accounts – like Finstas, fake Instagram accounts that their parents don’t know about - to hide aspects of their online lives. Two-thirds of eight to 11-year-olds had multiple accounts or profiles, and almost half of these have an account just for their family to see.
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"More than a third of children also admitted to potentially risky behaviours, which could hinder a parent or guardian keeping proper checks on their online use. A fifth used incognito mode or deleted their browsing history, and one in 20 children said they circumvented parental controls so they could visit certain apps and sites."
Meanwhile, despite being under the minimum age to use social media sites, which is 13 for most platforms, many young people were using them.
A third of parents of five to seven-year-olds and two-thirds of parents of eight to 11-year-olds said their kids had social media profiles. Older children were most likely to have a profile on Instagram, while children aged eight to 11 were more likely to have profiles on TikTok and YouTube.
TikTok in particular is growing in popularity, even among the youngest age groups - 16% of three to four-year-olds and 29% of five to seven-year-olds use the platform.
One 12-year-old girl told Ofcom: "I have no clue what the restriction for Instagram is. I could have it quite young because I could make a private account…For TikTok and Snapchat I think I put in a fake birthday because I was allowed to have it."
The report added that youngsters were becoming scrollers, not sharers. It said: "Children are seeing less online video content from their friends, with their feeds dominated by professional content from brands, celebrities and influencers. This slick content seems to be encouraging a trend towards scrolling instead of sharing, with both adults and children around three times as likely to watch videos online, than to post their own video content."
However, young people also told Ofcom they went online for their wellbeing and for campaigning purposes.
The regulator said: "Children told us they feel positive about the benefits of being online, and many use social media as a force for good. Over half of 13 to 17-year-olds feel being online is good for their mental health, while one in five disagreed.
"Eight in ten 13 to 17-year-olds are using online services to support their personal wellbeing. A quarter said they have learnt about healthy eating online, or have found help with issues like relationships and puberty.
"A fifth said they used the internet to follow fitness programmes and health trackers, or to get help when feeling sad, anxious, or worried. Similarly, about one in 10 went online to help with sleep issues, to meditate, or to help them feel energised.
"Campaigning also accounts for a degree of young people’s online activity. Nearly a quarter of teenagers follow the profiles of activists or campaigners, one in five writes posts in support of causes, and more than one in 10 follow political parties or campaign groups."
A number of organisations provide advice to help parents keep their children safe online. Among them is Internet Matters, which has age-specific safety checklists as well as guides on how to set parental controls on devices. You can find more information here.
