‘It’s so easy to lie.’ A fifth of children use phony age on social media.

The bitter-feeling Ofcom of social media companies warns against the strong menace misrepresentation of age by children using websites. An Ofcom public survey recently revealed that as much as 22% of young people aged from eight to seventeen admitted to telling a lie about their real ages to access social media.

Thus, the age verification requirements put in place by the Online Safety Act remain unheeded. Clearly indicating that children who can essentially act like adults will more readily face harmful, dangerous materials online.

Ian McCrae is the Director of Market Intelligence for Ofcom, and he has made it abundantly clear that the social media platforms need to do more on the age determination of their users, especially minors. He pointed out that 2025 is going to be the watershed year for online safety and that some measures should notably improve the protection of young users. McCrae warns that Ofcom will punish users that fail to comply with the OSA, as there are laws in place that can fine up to 10% of the entire revenue of the company worldwide.

In recent weeks, a number of technology companies have stepped up further in announcing their projects aimed at social media environments becoming safe for younger audiences. Like Instagram with the new teen accounts that are accessible to younger users. However, when a group of teenagers held a discussion with a group from Rosshall Academy, every member openly confessed to having given an adult age to their profiles on social media. This fact soon raises major concerns for Ofcom; in its opinion, immediate improvement for changes is necessary to enhance safety for children in the online space.

Attraction Molly Rose Foundation alarmed of survey findings say “incredibly shocking.” This shows that an age misrepresentation rate this high reflects that most of children are susceptible to exposure to unsafe suicidal and self-harm-related content when such enforcement comes into play. It encourages tech companies to make maximum delivery of their age verification standards for safety in online experiences for younger users.

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