More than one in ten young teenagers were sent sexual messages online last year while over a third were exposed to violent or criminal content, a study has found.
In the first study of its kind, 12 per cent of children aged 13 to 15 received at least one sexual message in the 12 months to February.
Of these, a quarter were sent sexual messages more than ten times and nearly one in five (19 per cent) received them from adults aged 18 and over, suggesting many predators are using online platforms to target young teens.
A quarter of girls (25 per cent) received sexual messages from someone aged 18 years and over, compared with around one in ten boys (12 per cent).
The most common way young teens received sexual messages was by private message (87 per cent).
Just over two-thirds (68 per cent) of those who received sexual messages in the 12 months to February this year considered them ‘unwanted’.
Girls (84 per cent) were more likely than boys (49 per cent) to receive unwanted sexual messages. Just over half (53 per cent) told someone about the unwanted content they received.
More than one in ten children were sent sexual messages online last year while over a third were exposed to violent or criminal contact, a survey found
Meanwhile, further highlighting the scale of online harms young teens face, nearly one in five (19 per cent) said they were exposed to ‘a lot’ or ‘a fair amount’ of content encouraging eating disorders.
A further 15 per cent said the same for sexual images or videos and more than one in ten (12 per cent) said they were exposed to content showing or encouraging self-harm.
Most children aged 13 to 15 years who were exposed to harmful content said they came across at least some of it unintentionally.
This included around four in five who were exposed to content encouraging eating disorders (83 per cent), showing or encouraging self-harm (82 per cent) or sexual images or videos (80 per cent).
Girls reported being exposed more than boys to hateful content (21 per cent vs 17 per cent) and material encouraging eating disorders (10 per cent v 3 per cent).
The Office for National Statistics survey recorded responses from children and made estimates about the wider scale of content young people were exposed to.
It will spark fresh debate about whether social media platforms need to do more to protect young people online after accusations that their algorithms can direct young people towards harmful or disturbing content.
The Government has announced plans to ban social media for under 16s, but the measures are unlikely to start becoming law until next year. And question marks remain over how far restrictions should go for 16 and 17-year-olds.
While the ONS has surveyed children face-to-face about their perceptions of crime in previous years, this was the first time they were able to respond online.
More than 6,000 responses were collected to study the perceptions of crime and online safety among 10 to 15-year-olds in England and Wales in the year to February 2026.
It found that 37 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 reported seeing violent or criminal content online.
The most common type was fights or other physical violence between people or groups of people (34 per cent).
But 15 per cent also saw ‘a lot’ or ‘a fair amount’ of sexual content, with boys more likely to have searched for it (18 per cent) than girls (11 per cent).
The survey found that, among children aged 10 to 15 years, around four in five (84 per cent) spent three or more hours online a day at the weekend, with a quarter (25 per cent) spending seven or more hours online daily at weekends.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) spent three or more hours online on an ordinary weekday.
Most children reported using a smartphone (88 per cent) or a desktop computer, laptop or notebook (62 per cent) to go online.
The most common online activities included watching videos, reels, vlogs or livestreams (83 per cent) and messaging (76 per cent).
Rowan Ferguson of the Molly Rose Foundation, set up by the father of Molly Russell, the teenager who took her own life after being bombarded by suicide content online, said: ‘These findings are deeply concerning, but unfortunately unsurprising.
‘We have repeatedly warned that Ofcom's weak implementation of the Online Safety Act would leave preventable harm unchecked, letting Big Tech off the hook for allowing children to encounter harmful content and predatory behaviour on their apps.
‘Andy Burnham's Government now has the opportunity to decisively reset our approach to online safety, making the change that children and parents are desperate for.
‘Rather than relying solely on bans and access restrictions, this means finally forcing Big Tech to address the pernicious design choices that put children in harm's way, including the algorithms that bombard them with harmful content.’
Caroline Youell, of the ONS’ Centre for Crime and Justice said: ‘The relaunched Children’s Crime Survey offers valuable insight into children’s experiences and perceptions of crime and safety, both in person and online.
‘Being online brings major benefits but also risks.'