Children as young as five have a social media profile with an average of 100 connections - only nine of whom they know in real life.
Despite most social networking sites having age regulations in place, many five to nine year olds have accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, according to new research.
Not only are these children creating connections with strangers, but they're also becoming far more technologically savvy than their parents realise - with a third of children saying they know how to delete their browsing history and often do so to make sure their parents don't know what they've been up to online.
More than half of the children questioned admitted to sharing personal information, such as their full name or a photo of themselves, on a public social network profile.
A fifth had even shared their exact location, normally by sharing the name of their school but in a few instances the child said they had also posted their home address.
The survey of 1,000 parents and 500 children aged five to nine was conducted by toy brand Leapfrog, which creates tablets designed for children. They have created an