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Around 2 in 5 children in Jersey message strangers

Around 2 in 5 children in Jersey admit to messaging people they do not know.

A staggering 37% of children say they have sent online messages to strangers. 

4,360 children from Years 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 participated in the government's 2024 Children and Young People's Survey.

3 in 5 children, some as young as eight, own a social media account under their name.

Around two thirds of children in the final year of primary school (Year 6) have a smartphone. This rises to all young people by the time they reach Year 12.

Three-quarters of those surveyed are exposed to more than three hours of screen time daily - including television - with 39% at a screen for more than five hours.

Girls are more likely to spend time on the internet, whereas boys tend to use their screen time to game.

A third of Year 12s (teens aged 16-17) have confessed to changing privacy settings on apps, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, to gain more followers.

The survey also shows that a quarter of young people have low to medium self-esteem and that a third of girls feel pressured to look a certain way on social media.

The top three worries for children in Years 4 to 12 are workload, exam stress and what people think of them.

Almost 2 in 5 teenagers in Jersey worry about their appearance as much as every day.

The survey also reveals that 40% of all children in Years 8 to 12 have experienced unwanted sexual attention.

The number of girls in Jersey who trust adults will keep them safe falls dramatically with age.

63% of girls in Year 4 believe adults will protect them, falling to just 9% in Year 12.

The full report from the 2024 Children and Young People's survey, compiled by Statistics Jersey.

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