Dubit found that age 12 is the year social features unlock. Our study, published February 2026, covered 3,009 households in the US and UK and platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It measured each single year of age from 10 to 12, with about 204 to 210 young people at each age1. On several of those platforms the jump from 11 to 12 is sharper than the jump from 10 to 11. Snapchat direct-message use is 18.6% at age 11 and 25.7% at age 12.
YouTube commenting climbs in steady steps, but other features jump at 12. YouTube commenting runs at 18.1% at age 10, 20.1% at age 11 and 21.9% at age 12. YouTube likes run at 28.4% at age 10 and 28.9% at age 11, then jump to 38.6% at 12. Instagram commenting falls from 12.3% at age 10 to 9.3% at age 11, then climbs to 17.6% at 12. TikTok commenting rises from 18.6% at age 11 to 26.2% at age 12.
Content creation stays flat or declines between ages 10 to 12 and 13 to 15. On TikTok it falls from 27.6% to 25.8%, and on YouTube from 14.3% to 12.9%.
How many platforms a young person is on predicts direct messaging. Among the 8 to 12 year olds in the study, it is the strongest predictor of direct-message use. Of those on three or more, 57.8% use direct messages, against 3.3% of those on one.
TikTok takes the favourite-platform lead at 10 to 12. Among 6 to 9 year olds, YouTube leads on 30.8% against TikTok's 18.9%. Among 10 to 12 year olds, TikTok leads for the first time, on 25.5% against YouTube's 21.2%.
The older they get, the more of them follow friends on TikTok. Friend-following on TikTok rises from 31.3% at ages 5 to 7 to 53.4% at 14 to 15. On YouTube it grows more slowly over the same ages, from 13.5% to 28.9%. We read that as TikTok becoming a social network and YouTube a content library.
Footnotes
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"The Big Five", a Dubit Trends study of 3,009 households in the US and UK, published February 2026. Every figure on this page comes from it. The single-year figures for ages 10, 11 and 12 rest on about 204 to 210 young people at each age. ↩
