Like lots of things online, there are special rules for using most social media services, which you agree to when you sign up. Often these rules are included as part of the ‘Terms and Conditions’.
Nearly all social media services have a rule about how old you have to be to use them. For lots of them you have to be at least 13 years old, although some services say older.
What is social media?
Social media means apps and sites that are used mainly for talking with your friends or other people online.
You can normally share things like photos, videos or written posts, message people and interact with what they’ve posted – maybe by liking it or writing a comment.
Why do social media services have age restrictions?
A big part of the reason social media services have age restrictions is actually because it’s the law! Don’t panic though – they’re not laws for you, they’re laws for the companies who run apps and websites.
When you create a social media account you share some of your personal information with the company who owns that service…but the law says those companies are not allowed to have your personal information without your parent or carer’s permission.
Most social media services don’t want to have to get permission from your parents and carers because it would be a lot of extra work – think how you would feel about extra homework? This is why they use an age restriction instead.
What if I’m already on social media?
You haven’t broken the law but might have broken the terms and conditions. This means if the social media service find out that you’re too young to use their app or website, they may delete your account or block your email address from creating another account in the future.
Our advice is it’s always best to wait until the correct age to use any online service. This is because we don’t want:
- You to have to lie about your age to gain access to something
- You to see scary or upsetting things intended for adults only
- Other people or companies online to think you’re older than you really are.
Top Tip
Talk to an adult you trust before you start using social media or if you’re using it already.
A parent or carer can help you decide whether you’re really ready to be using social media. If you make that decision as a family, they can also help you to stay safe by using things like privacy settings.
As part of our work in the UK Safer Internet Centre