Parents let kids lie about age online

THE majority of parents would let children lie about their age to use social media websites aimed at adults, a survey reveals.

A poll of more than 1,000 parents with youngsters aged ten to 15 found 60 per cent would allow them to pretend they are older to get around age restrictions.

And a third of the ‘tweens’ can use the internet without any parental controls.

The revelation will stoke calls for families to take more responsibility for their children’s online activity.

The minimum age for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites is 13 – but children can bypass this by lying when they sign up.

Their parents’ lax attitude means they are potentially able to befriend and chat with adult strangers, share images of themselves and access inappropriate material when online.

Two-thirds of parents with children in this age group said their children used social media, equating to 2.8million users. But just 8 per cent said they supervised their children while online. The researchers also interviewed 900 ‘tweens’ and found more than a quarter of social media users had been upset because of comments made online.

The same proportion had felt excluded because they were not invited to events or gatherings that they had seen online.

And around 12 per cent had experienced cyber-bullying, found the survey for insurer Aviva.

Spokesman Lindsey Rix said: ‘There are a wealth of ways in which parents can help their children to stay safe online, from putting parental controls in place on their devices or simply supervising them and teaching them about the risks.’