A certain version of this story sounds like it’s been told before. A parent gives their kid a tablet to keep them busy. A few months go by. All of a sudden, the child is talking about words, videos, and ideas that the parent doesn’t understand. You should find out where all of that came from.
What people don’t know or don’t talk about as much is how early this is happening. Ofcom’s most recent study on kids’ media use in the UK shows that kids ages five to seven use social media more than ever, going from 30% to 38% in just one year. The number of people in this age group who use WhatsApp rose from 29% to 37%. It went from 14% to 22% on Instagram. These aren’t teenagers. These are kids, who might not be able to read well yet, using apps made for adults.
About one-third of parents of kids aged five to seven say their kid now uses social media on their own. This finding probably needs more attention than it’s getting. No, not with a parent. By yourself. That many of those parents might think they have a good idea of what their child is doing online is possible. Based on the data, it looks like the picture is more complicated than that.
The numbers for online gaming are also going in the same direction. Fourteen percent of kids ages five to seven play video games online, up from thirty-four percent the year before. Another interesting fact is that 15% of kids this age play shooter games, which is up from 10% a year ago. Some people think that the conversation about what content is appropriate for different age groups has not kept up with how quickly access is growing.
The information in Ofcom’s study about parental awareness (or the gaps in it) is what makes it worth your time. It sounds good that three quarters of parents have talked to their young children about staying safe online until you see the next number. A third of kids ages eight to seventeen say they’ve seen or read something scary or upsetting online in the last year. But only 20% of parents in that same group say their child has ever brought it up. That difference is pretty big. It seems like something isn’t getting through, even when people are talking, or kids are choosing not to talk about what they see.
The qualitative part of Ofcom’s research gives the numbers more depth. Researchers saw kids watching TikTok at twice the normal speed, skimming through videos like an adult might skim news stories. Others, mostly girls, were interested in ASMR videos, which are slow, whispering, and strangely personal videos that the creators say are relaxing. Some kids said they watched these to get to sleep. At least one of them stayed up late to work on them all at once. You’ll remember that little thing.
There’s also a finding that parents of teenagers should know about. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are less sure than they were a year ago that they can tell the difference between real and fake content online (75% are sure, down from 82%). In the age group that has been online the longest, that’s a big drop in just one year.
Ofcom is getting ready to hold formal consultations on stronger safety measures, such as a Children’s Safety Code of Practice that would force tech companies to take real action against harmful content. That process is important. But rules are being made slowly, and kids’ online habits are changing quickly. There is a lot of risk in the space between the two right now.
Parents should not wait for rules to catch up. That is the most helpful thing they can do right now. They need to be honest about what their child is actually accessing, not what they think their child is accessing, and have the specific, ongoing talks that research shows most families aren’t quite having yet. Not a single word. A pattern.
