Parents are failing to prepare their children for the dangers they may encounter online, according to a new report by Anna Longfield, the Children's Commissioner for England.
Growing Up Digital warns that many children are "left to learn about the internet on their own with parents vainly hoping that they will benefit from its opportunities while avoiding its pitfalls".
As a result, young people regularly sign away their rights online by agreeing to the complicated legal terms and conditions forms needed to use social media platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat, it says. For example, while half of eight to 11-year-olds and more than half of 12 to 15-year-olds monitored in the year-long study used the photo-sharing app Instagram, few realised they had given the company the right to use or sell their images or personal information.
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When presented with a simplified version of the terms and conditions, many of the children expressed shock, The Guardian reports, with one girl saying: "They write like this so you can't understand it because then you might think differently."
Others also reported harassment online, including strangers asking for photos of them naked, and expressed concern that social media companies did not do enough to protect viewers from seeing unwanted explicit content.
"You'll click on a hashtag like #beautygiveaways and then see a dick pic," one 12-year-old girl said.
Growing Up Digital recommends the creation of a specialist ombudsman tasked with standing up for the rights and needs of children online, as well as making "digital citizenship" part of the school curriculum.
Longfield told the BBC: "The internet is an incredible force for good, but it is wholly irresponsible to let [children] roam in a world for which they are ill-prepared.
"It is critical that children are educated better so that they can enjoy the opportunities provided by the internet whilst minimising the well-known risks."
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