ONS publishes statistical bulletin on children’s online behaviour
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published a statistical bulletin on children's online behaviour in England and Wales for the year ending March 2020.
Findings from the bulletin uses data from the 10 to 15-year-old’s Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
Main points
Almost 9 in 10 children (89%) aged 10 to 15 years said they went online every day.
While the majority of children told us they only spoke to or exchanged messages with people online who they knew in person, around one in six children (17%) aged 10 to 15 years spoke with someone they had never met before (equivalent to 682,000 children) in the previous 12 months.
An estimated 1 in 50 children (2%) said that they spoke to or messaged someone online in the previous 12 months who they thought was their age but later found out were much older.
An estimated 5% of children aged 10 to 15 years met up in person with someone they had only spoken to online (equivalent to 212,000 children) in the previous 12 months.
Around 1 in 10 children (11%) aged 13 to 15 years reported receiving a sexual message, while 1 in 100 reported sending a sexual message, in the previous 12 months.
Girls aged 13 to 15 years were significantly more likely to report receiving sexual messages than boys (16% compared with 6%) in the previous 12 months.
The majority of parents or guardians of children aged 10 to 15 years (64%) had some sort of rules about the length of time and when their children can go online.
Statistician’s comment
Commenting on today’s figures, Sophie Sanders from the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice said:
“Now more than ever, being online can bring huge benefits to children, but it can also pose significant risks. Using data collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, we can see that most children aged 10 to 15 years only spoke to people online who they already knew in person. However, 1 in 6 children spoke to someone they had never met in person and five percent subsequently met up with someone they had only spoken to online. Although these situations may not necessarily lead to any harm, it is important to bear in mind that they all carry serious risks for children.”
You can read the full report here.
