Almost a third of pre-teen boys are playing over-18s online games and are more likely to be exposed to violent imagery and harmful content, according to new research.
The figures are contained in the annual report of the internet safety charity CyberSafeKids.
According to the data, 95% of children aged 8-12 own their own smart device, while 87% have their own social media or instant messaging account, despite minimum age restrictions of 13 on all of the most popular apps.
Over a third of children reported that they can go online “whenever they want”, and 15% reported having “no rules” in place at home for going online.
Over a quarter of children surveyed said they had been bothered by content they had encountered online, and 29% of them kept it to themselves rather than report it to their parents or someone else.
