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London - Four in ten parents have allowed their children to watch films classified above their actual age.

Parents today are struggling to ensure the movies young people see are age appropriate because of peer pressure.

A new report revealed that 40 percent of mothers and fathers in Britain allow pre-teens to watch films with 15 or 18 rating, and or younger children to watch shows that are suitable only for those 12 and over.

Website Parentport interviewed 1,800 people about the pressures on ensuring children see age appropriate media.

A quarter of parents allow their children to play computer games classified above their age, while 16 percent admitted they had bought devices for their kids that they did not understand how to use.

Many parents also told of their fears about what youngsters were able to access when unsupervised on laptops and smartphones.

Parentport was set up to help mothers and fathers complain about material they see or hear across the media.

The report comes as the BBC revealed one third of British teenagers say their reputations have been damaged because of “over-sharing” of information online.

Its survey found that many of the nation’s 13-19-year-olds are still putting their safety at risk by putting swathes of personal information on social networking sites.

Teenagers increasingly share pictures and videos of themselves, private details such as mobile phone numbers, emails and addresses, and details of where they are and what they are doing on social networking and chat sites.

The study also found that 60 percent of teenagers had no idea that much of the personal details they post on the internet will remain their forever.

More than a quarter said that “over-sharing” had left them feeling worried and depressed and 58 percent had lost friends because of it.

The survey, commissioned by Radio 1 and Radio Five Live, lays bare the startling reality of how little British teenagers know about what will happen to the information they are sharing – and who can access it.

Almost half admitted that they had visited a website that their parents would not approve of, while 38 percent said they had learnt most of what they knew about internet safety by themselves.

The broadcaster launched its Share Take Care campaign to help boost media literacy among young people.

Last year, media and technology regulator Ofcom revealed that teenagers were increasingly using iPhones and similar gadgets to access the web.

A spokesman said: ‘They are using the internet out of the home, away from the home computer. We need to make sure parents are aware of the risks.

‘There is a need to be aware of what they are using [smartphones] for and what the implications might be.’

Children’s campaigners and charities have raised concerns about the growing ease with which children and young teens can access adult material through the internet on their phones.

There has also been a trend to make and share intimate photos or videos that are often passed on to hundreds of people.

Dr Emma Bond, a childhood and youth studies academic, said in a recent interview: ‘The research shows how children are using mobile phones in obtaining sexual material, developing their sexual identities and in their intimate relationships with each other.

‘Today it is incredibly easy for young people to take intimate images of themselves and send them to someone else via a text message or via the internet all in a few seconds and all from their mobile phone.’

Child psychologist, Dr Tanya Byron has also warned parents letting children play unchecked on the internet is just as dangerous as allowing them to roam the streets unsupervised. - Daily Mail