Adult online age used by third of eight- to 17-year-old social media users

Ofcom study covers Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube, all of which have age limits of 13

A third of social media users aged between eight and 17 have the online age of an adult because they sign up with a false date of birth, according to new research.

The fake age issue means that young users in the UK are at greater risk of being exposed to harmful or adult content, as platforms presume they are older than they in fact are.