Nearly half of children have social network profile
- Added:
- Apr 03, 2008
Nearly half of all UK children who have access to the internet have their own personal profile on a social networking site and many do not use privacy settings, according to research from Ofcom.
Social networking is widespread among eight to 17-year-olds, with 49 per cent holding a profile, compared to a fifth (22 per cent) of adults with a profile.
Of those children who use social networking, the study shows 41 per cent leave their privacy settings as default 'open' which means their profiles are visible to anyone. This number was slightly higher for adults, at 44 per cent.
In addition, 34 per cent of 16-24 year olds are willing to give out sensitive personal information such as their phone number or email address while online.
Ofcom said some 27 per cent of eight-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites and have internet access have an online profile.
While some of these are on sites intended for younger children, the presence of underage users on social networking sites intended for those aged 13 or over was confirmed by the research.
And while 65 per cent of parents claim to set rules on their child's use of social networking sites, only 53 per cent of children said that their parents set such rules.
A minority of people reported being aware of bullying through social networking sites and some younger users admitted using social networking sites to 'get back' at people they had fallen out with.
Facebook is the most popular site with adults followed by MySpace and then Bebo. For children aged between eight and 17, Bebo was the most used social networking site.