Despite WhatsApp’s 13-year-old minimum age requirement, over two out of every five users in the age range used the messaging app last year.
The communications regulator cautioned that there “seemed to be diminishing” parental enforcement of standards.
It said that the numbers ought to serve as a “wake up call” for the sector to take further precautions against child abuse.
According to the news’s annual survey on kids’ interactions with media and the internet, the proportion of kids between the ages of five and seven who use messaging services has increased from 59% to 65%.
The percentage climbed from 30% to 38% on social media and from 39% to 38% on livestreams.
