We’ve published a range of new research shining a light on different aspects of the online lives of children in the UK.
We’ve also published research on how online platform design can influence the experiences and behaviours of both children and adults.
Our three reports, on children’s online spending and potential financial harm, passive measurement of children’s internet use, and platform design and user behaviour, each take a detailed look at the different activities and themes that contribute to children’s experiences of the online world.
Each report contains a wealth of information on its respective subject, and we’re capturing some snapshots from the research here. For more information you can read the reports in full.
Passive measurement of children’s internet use
Using passive monitoring technology, we measured a representative sample of children’s use of websites and apps across smartphones, tablets and computers. The results show the online services 8-14-year-olds use and the time they spend on them. Here are some of the findings.
- UK child internet users aged 8-14 spent an average of 2 hours 59 minutes a day online across smartphone, tablet and computer. – with girls spending more time online than boys on the devices that were monitored.
- Alphabet-owned YouTube (96%) and Google search (95%) were the top-reaching services, reaching almost all 8-14s in a month. This was followed by Meta’s Facebook (including Messenger) (75%) and WhatsApp (63%).
- The services that children spent most time on were YouTube and Snapchat – combined, they accounted for over half (52%, 1 hour 31 minutes) of the average time spent by UK 8-14-year-olds per day.
- There is a steep growth in take up of the popular social media services during the age range of 10-12. For instance, 27% of 10-year-olds visited Snapchat in a month, and this increased to 64% among 12-year-olds.
- 13–14-year-old Snapchat users spent an average of 2 hours 13 minutes a day on Snapchat, visitors aged 10-12 on average spent 1 hour 18 minutes and visitors aged 8-9 spent 28 minutes.
- Roblox is the top-reaching games app, reaching 61% of UK 8-14-year-olds in a month across smartphone, tablet, computer.
Children’s online spending and potential financial harm
This research explored how persuasive design features on platforms relate to child spending and potential child financial harms from a media literacy perspective. The quantitative survey outlines the overall scale and nature of children’s spending, what influences their spending, and how parents and children feel about spending online. The qualitative element identified the persuasive design features encountered by children on social sites / apps and on gaming platforms, and how these can potentially lead to experiences of financial harm. It focused specifically on children and parents with experiences of or concerns about child financial harms. The research highlighted several findings
- Over half of children (58%) said they spent money online in the past month, whether on social media sites, video-sharing platforms, or while they were gaming. Gaming is especially prominent, with 97% of 8–17-year-olds playing online games, and 53% of them spending money within those games.
- Out of those children who had bought something on a social or gaming site in the last month, the majority say that they enjoy making purchases (67% in games or 77% in social media), however, a significant proportion also experience regret. A third (32%) regret purchases made in-game, and 43% regret purchases made on social media. Additionally, 42% find it unclear what they’re buying in games, and 41% say they overspend.
- Over half of parents express some concern about their child’s online spending. However, while 84% of parents have at least one parental control or way of monitoring their child’s spending online, 15% say they have no restrictions.
- The qualitative research identified a range of self-reported/potential financial harms, which children may experience instantly or cumulatively over time.
- Five key categories of persuasive design features were identified, which are specifically related to encouraging spending and potential child financial harm. These are risk-based features (such as loot boxes), dissociative features (such as bundled in-game currency packages), misleading features (such drip pricing), social influence features (such as streak rewards) and impulse activating features (such as time-limited mystery rewards).
Platform design and user behaviour
As part of this research, we examined the potential impact of platform design on user behaviour and online safety. Main findings included:
- There are minimal differences between child and adult accounts across services. Many platforms provide limited signposting to parental oversight tools and tailored support for children, which may make it difficult for parents to find and activate supervision tools, and for children to access relevant guidance.
- Platforms include time-management and wellbeing features to help users monitor their usage, but their visibility and accessibility vary. Time limits are usually set to ‘on’ by default for children accounts (for an hour per day), but rarely for adults. Even where time limits exist, they can often be easily dismissed or bypassed with minimal effort. The way platforms are designed might encourage users to accept default settings during sign-up, while offering limited transparency and few opportunities to customise how their data is used.