Over four-fifths of Irish children between the ages of eight and 12 are using social media and instant messaging apps, a recent survey has shown.
Despite minimum age restrictions, a report by CyberSafeKids Ireland showed that among the almost 4,000 pre-teens surveyed, 93% owned their own smart device, and the majority were using apps that had minimum age restrictions of 13 and older.
74% of kids surveyed used YouTube, with 46% on TikTok, 39% on WhatsApp while 37% use Snapchat on their own devices.
80% of kids aged 8-12 said they played online games, with 61% of the children surveyed saying they had been contacted by a stranger while gaming on the internet, an increase of 16% on last year's figure.
A quarter of kids said they had experienced something which had bothered or upset them which they didn't want their parents to know about, with 30% saying they hadn't told anyone else about the experience, up 10% on the 2020 annual report.
Whil 80% of teachers surveyed also said that online safety was a significant issue in their school.
"We need to recognise as parents that when children are active online, or even beforehand, that we prepare them" said CyberSafeKids chief executive Alex Cooney, after a report in which almost a third of children said they could go online whenever they wanted.
