YouthSight recruits panellists from this age group by first targeting the child via social media advertising, then asking them to provide their parents’ email addresses.

The company then emails parents to request consent, and once given, follows up with a phone call to the parent before the child can join the panel.

Tatenda Musesengwa, managing director of YouthSight’s panel and data services business said: “The 13-15 audience has always been one of the most difficult to reach for researchers, and with good reason. It’s a young audience that needs protection. But on the other hand, researchers need access to this audience: their views are too often ignored in consultations, product design, etc.

“In extending our panel down to 13-year-olds we wanted to provide faster and higher quality access for researchers, while also offering all the protections that survey participants in this age bracket need.”

The move is in response to research the agency undertook on the issue of parents completing surveys on behalf of their children. Of 1,000 surveys conducted via a panel company, aimed at 13-15 year-olds, 25% were completed within school hours during term time, according to YouthSight.

Emma Quinn, panel and data services client manager at the agency, said: “Our research on research returned a worrying picture, where around half the surveys completed were with parents, not kids. So, fixing this problem was a key motivation for YouthSight when considering how to extend our youth panel to include younger members.”