Young Minds and The Children’s Society, have carried out a survey of 1,000 children and young people aged 11-25 to hear about their views and experiences of bullying online.

More than a third of young people (37%) said they had experienced online bullying in their lifetime versus 47% of those who had reported offline bullying experiences.

An overwhelming majority of young people surveyed (83%) said that social media companies should do more to tackle cyberbullying on social media.

More than half (59%) of young people had their first social media account at the age of 12, despite guidelines for social media sites stating that you must be 13 years old to have an account. 

Nearly half (45%) said they spent more than three hours per day on social media.

The Young Minds inquiry aims to look at what social media companies are doing to tackle such behaviour on their platforms, and whether the industry is going far enough to protect children and young people on their sites. 

Sarah Brennan OBE, Chief Executive of YoungMinds said: “Whilst we know that social media can have a positive impact on young people's confidence and relationships, it also creates its own unique set of pressures.

This inquiry presents an important opportunity to examine whether social media companies can do more to ensure that young people are able to navigate online interactions in a positive and safe way.”