More children joining social networking sites

by Amy Judd | April 2, 2008 at 09:03 am

474 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

A study in the UK has shown that more children than ever before are nowa member on at least one social networking site. That means that morethan a quarter of eight to eleven year-olds have a profile on a sitesuch as Facebook or MySpace.

Most sites, such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook, set a minimum age of between 13 and 14 to create a profile but none actively enforce the age limit.

Ofcom's survey of 5,000 adults and 3,000 children found 49% of those aged between eight and 17 have a profile.

Ofcom says parents need to keep an eye on what their children do online.

Wide usage

The Ofcom report looks into the impact of social networks on people's lives in the UK as part of a wider media literacy campaign and surveyed 5,000 adults and more than 3,000 children.

Its statistics suggest that around 19% of all UK youngsters have a presence on a social networking site.

"Social networks are clearly a very important part of people's lives and are having an impact on how people live their lives," said James Thickett, director of market research at Ofcom.

He added: "Children's lives are very different from what they were 20 years ago. Social networks are a way of creating a social bond."