95% teens aged between 13 and 17 years and 76% minors below age of 13 use YouTube daily

A whopping 95 percent of the teens, aged between 13 and 17 years, access the Internet while 76 percent of minors, below the age of 13, use YouTube daily, a new survey released here on Monday revealed.

One is required to be of above 18 years of age to open an account on YouTube, the video-sharing website.

Social media networking sites are used by 81 percent of the teenagers while 72 percent of them log into social media more than once daily, the survey by Assocham said.

Of these, 65 percent of the kids aged below 13 used social media sites and 76 percent of the children below 13 have a YouTube account, and 51 percent of them also have a Smartphone.

Over one-third — 35 percent — of the teenagers use laptops and 32 percent use tablets to access their favourite websites, said Assocham Secretary-General D.S. Rawat.

“The statistics are sad and worrying. YouTube requires account holders to be 18, but even a five-year-old can easily sign up with parents’ permission. Despite these clearly stated and published age restrictions, large and growing numbers of children between the age of 7 to 13 are using social media networks and access YouTube assistance without their parents’ knowledge and consent,” Rawat said.

The survey by Assocham’s Social Development Foundation (ASDF) of 4,750 parents of children in the age group of 6-13 was conducted in various Indian cities.