Social media use among Australian children aged 10 to 15 is almost universal and accompanied by high rates of exposure to online harms on a wide range of platforms and services, according to eSafety’s latest research report.
The report shows 96 per cent of children in this age group had used at least one social media platform, with 7 in 10 saying they had encountered content associated with harm online. This included exposure to misogynistic or hateful material, dangerous online challenges, violent fight videos, and content promoting disordered eating and suicide.
Three quarters of these children said they most recently encountered this type of content on a social media service.
The report titled ‘Digital use and risk: Online platform engagement among children aged 10 to 15’, is the latest in eSafety’s ongoing series of reports presenting findings from its Keeping Kids Safe Online survey.
eSafety analysed responses from just over 2,600 children aged 10 to 15 for this latest report, providing an important snapshot of how children in this age group currently use online platforms and the types of harms they are routinely exposed to.
Some 1 in 7 reported experiencing online grooming-type behaviour from adults or other children at least 4 years older. This included being asked questions about their private parts or to share nude images.
Just over 60 per cent of children who had experienced grooming-type behaviour said their most recent experience happened on social media, highlighting the risks associated with co-mingled platforms, designed for adults but also used by children.
The research also showed cyberbullying remains a persistent harm in this age group as a whole, with more than half of children reporting they had experienced it and their most recent experiences of cyberbullying were spread relatively evenly between social media, gaming and messaging platforms.
But as children get older the proportion of cyberbullying occurring on social media grows, with almost half of children aged 13 to 15 who had experienced cyberbullying saying their most recent experience had happened on a social media platform.
These findings formed one element of our independent advice on the social media minimum age rules, recently provided to the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, as required under the new legislation. This advice was released on 19 June 2025 and is available here.
The next report in the series 'Connected, curious, cautious: Children’s engagement in the digital world' is due for release in August.
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