By Paola Mendiola Efigenio

Before creating your new online account, you are asked to enter your age. Eliana, age 8, learned from her classmate that changing the year she was born to make her 13 would allow her to create an account. With the click of a button, her account was successfully made. Instead of making herself 13, she decided to go with 18. Like many children, Eliana now joins every 1 in 3 children who use a fake birthday to create their accounts (Ofcom, 2024). Not only is she old enough to use the platform now, but she’s old enough to be recognized as a legal adult.

For many children under the age of 13, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) stands in the way of accessing many social media and game websites. Since 1998, COPPA has regulated how information about children under 13 is used. Faced with these barriers, children often try to bypass them by providing a different age to avoid parental controls and limitations. For many children, the question “What if a hacker got access to my account and saw my real age?” runs through their minds when creating their accounts. The sad reality is that data breaches happen all the time, and no one is safe from their personal information being seen. The combination of a lack of data security, peer pressure, and an eagerness to explore online platforms pushes children to choose a different age.

This choice to misstate their age has further consequences. According to Ofcom, many features and functionalities that are not available to younger users, such as direct messaging and access to adult content, are unlocked for them. This can expose young users to content that reinforces self-consciousness and amplifies insecurities during critical stages of childhood development. According to the Digital Wellness Lab in their 2022 survey, when asked about the impact of social media on their body image, “46% of adolescents aged 13-17 said social media makes them feel worse.”

It doesn’t stop in childhood or adolescence. The internet has proven to be a time machine for some and a fountain of youth for others. Research shows that lying about age continues well into adulthood, with roughly 1 in 5 adults misstating their age on dating websites (Elagina, 2026). Age deception is ingrained in our online culture and will remain a challenge until we create online environments truly capable of prioritizing the safety and well-being of our online users.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published an advisory with suggestions for ways caregivers can do:

  • Teach children and adolescents about technology and empower them to be responsible online participants at the appropriate age.
  • Model responsible social media behavior.

 Additionally, parents and caregivers can:

  • Assist with account creation. Assist your child with creating an account, talk about how to create an account and how to create a safe password they can remember.

Conversation Starters

  1. Have you ever found yourself using a different birthday than your own online?
  2. Do you feel safe putting your real age on the internet?
  3. What different games and platforms are you using when you’re online?

Learn more

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