UK - A quarter of internet users aged 8-12 say they have under-age social networking profiles

[ofcom] A quarter of children aged 8-12 who use the internet at home say they have a profile on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace, new Ofcom research revealed today. These sites have a minimum user age of 13.

But 83 per cent of these children have their profile set so that it can only be seen by friends, and 4 per cent have a profile that can't be seen. Nine in ten parents of these children who are aware that their child visits social networking sites (93 per cent) also say that they check what their child is doing on these types of sites. However one in six (17 per cent) parents of this group are not aware that their child visits social networking sites.

Ofcom's annual Children's Media Literacy Audit provides an overview of media literacy among children and young people and their parents and carers. The report also includes internet audience data which showed that amongst 5-7 year old home internet users, just over a third (37 per cent) visited Facebook in October 2009 (but did not necessarily have a profile).

A quarter of internet users aged 8-12 say they have under-age social networking profiles