Social networking website Facebook is waning in its popularity with teenagers but becoming increasingly used by children.

An estimated 40 per cent of Maltese children aged seven to 12 have a Facebook account despite being younger than the age stipulated by the social media giant to hold an account.

Vanessa Camilleri, an assistant lecturer within the Faculty of Education, explained the 40 per cent statistic, which she and her colleagues gleaned while researching digital and video game usage in Malta, tallied with statistics released by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA).

“We didn’t investigate further and delve into whether they lied about their age, used their parents’ account or whether someone did it for them. But what we know is that this is not a new trend or just pertinent to Malta.”

While Facebook retains its popularity with children as well as adults, its popularity with teenagers seems to be declining.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any empirical studies but we have been observing this trend.

“While teenagers still retain their Facebook profile, they don’t use it as much. Many prefer to migrate to Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat,” she said.

More on Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.