Ofcom: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones
www.bbc.com
The regulator calls the data a "wake up call", and says parents and industry need to do more.

Nearly a quarter of UK five-to-seven-year-olds now have their own smartphone, Ofcom research suggests.

Social media use also rose in the age group over last year with nearly two in five using messaging service WhatsApp, despite its minimum age of 13.

The communications regulator warned parental enforcement of rules “appeared to be diminishing.”

It also said the figures should be a “wake up call” for the industry to do more to protect children.

In its annual study of children’s relationship with the media and online worlds, Ofcom said the percentage of children aged between five and seven who used messaging services had risen from 59% to 65%.

The number on social media went up from 30% to 38%, while for livestreams it increased from 39% to 50%. Just over 40% are reported to be gaming online - up from 34% the year before.

Over half of children under 13 used social media, contrary to most of the big platforms’ rules, and many admitted to lying to gain access to new apps and services.

  • Dark ArcAEnglish
    52·
    8 months ago

    I wish I would’ve had something like that as a kid honestly. Keeping in touch with my friends and classmates over the summer … being able to share my imaginary world I built in my brother / our dams, bridges, etc would’ve been really cool. It also would’ve made rural Ohio summers far less socially isolating.

    I see some comments about social media; I don’t think most social media is healthy for anyone to spend an extended time on, but being able to message, call, and video chat friends … to look up some information or get ideas for how to improve my projects… to play a game with friends over the Internet… All of that could’ve been super nice.

    Similarly with the “bad people”, the risk of a completely open to the Internet smart phone is … so small. An elementary school student isn’t going to have the tech literacy to really get themselves into trouble. I mean think about your day to day usage of the Internet, how much unsavory content do you come across without explicitly seeking it out? For me, it’s basically 0. If you remove social media from the equation, it almost definitely is 0. If you go searching for something bad… You’ll find it, but kids aren’t going to go searching for that stuff unprompted…

    The one generational “oh crap” question I can think of is “how are babies made?” but I mean literally just searched that to check, you find explanation videos using anatomical drawings (like you’d find in a textbook) that might have a kid going “oh my god, what??” In the US, I could definitely see some parents freaking out about that… But really, it’s just harmless information about how life works that we adults tend to get all uncomfortable about (arguably because religious texts/organizations speak of sex in this taboo tone).