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Almost a quarter of children in the UK aged between five and seven own a smartphone, with a significant number using social media apps such as TikTok and WhatsApp despite falling under the minimum age limits.
The study by Ofcom published on Friday underlined the greater freedoms parents were giving younger children, with three-quarters using a tablet to go online.
The findings will reinforce concerns among parents and campaigners about online safety for children. There was a recent call for a ban on children under 16 from owning smartphones altogether, to protect their mental health.
Meta sparked a backlash recently after it lowered the minimum age for users of WhatsApp — part of its stable of social media services that includes Instagram and Facebook — from 16 to 13 in the UK and EU.
Ofcom is preparing to consult on proposals to better protect children online, including plans to use AI to detect illegal and harmful content. The focus will be on drawing up a safety code of practice which will set out steps for tech firms to ensure children have safer experiences online.
The report found the overall proportion of those aged 5 to 7 using social media sites or apps had risen to 38 per cent from 30 per cent a year ago. WhatsApp, whose usage jumped from 29 to 37 per cent, Instagram (14 to 22 per cent) and TikTok (25 to 30 per cent) had some of the biggest growth.
A third of children in this age group used social media unsupervised, Ofcom found. The proportion of parents who said they were more likely to allow their child to sign up for a social media profile, even if they were below the minimum age limit, rose from 25 per cent a year ago to 30 per cent.
More than half of children under 13 — which is commonly the minimum age requirement for many social media platforms — reported using social media sites and apps.
More than 40 per cent of 5 to 7-year-olds played online games (up from just over a third last year), with about 15 per cent playing shooting games.
A third of children aged 8 to 17 said they have seen something “worrying or nasty” online in the past 12 months. Girls were more likely than boys to have experience of “nasty or hurtful interactions” online, according to the regulator.
Among adults, about half of social media users said Facebook was their ‘main’ social media site or app, driven by its popularity among older users. TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram were all more popular with younger users.
Three-quarters of adults had heard of artificial intelligence but less than a quarter had used it. In a sign of the rapid adoption of the technology among younger users, nearly half of children said they had used AI.
