One Million 7-12 Year-Olds are Addicted to Facebook
Few adults can get through a day without checking into Facebook, but it seems the craze has reached a new audience. New research suggests that millions of British children have a Facebook addiction.
The survey by market research company Mintel found that millions of British 7-12 year-olds could be classed as Facebook addicts.
About 970,000 of them login to the site at least once a day, with an additional 46 per cent of children using the site occasionally. Just one in 20 say they never log on.
The survey revealed that young girls were the worst offenders, especially amongst 10-12 year olds.
When they're not on Facebook, youngsters turn to other social networking sites such as Twitter and Club Penguin, although they visit these sites much less than they do Facebook.
Experts regard peer pressure as the key motivation for using a particular social network as nearly two-thirds of 7 to 12-year-olds use a social network because pals do.
"Today's children are well versed in all aspects of the internet, with almost a million children aged seven to 12 using Facebook - highlighting just how popular the site has become," Ina Mitskavets, author of the Children's Lifestyles report from Mintel, said.
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