Half of Irish pre-teens on social media 'have lied about their age'

A new survey for Internet Safety Day reveals that more than half of Irish pre-teens who use social media sites have lied about their age online.

Cyber Safety Ireland said that 26% of pre-teens have social media accounts, and half of them admitted to lying about their age.

Under 13s are not permitted to have social media accounts, however it is argued that it is easy for children to lie about their age.

Chief executive of Cyber Safe Ireland Alex Cooney said that parents need to make sure they are involved in what their young children are doing online.

"Its really important to educate parents and empower them and support them, because not all of them feel equipped to deal with this, they didn't grow up with this access to technology that the children have today," she said.

"So for them, often times it's about catching up and learning about what their kids are doing and engaging with their kids to find out more, doing a bit of research, and trying to keep the conversation open."