ALMOST one in every 20 children has used a sunbed, despite under-18s being banned from using the machines, according to a poll.
It has been against the law for children to use sunbeds in Scotland for the past five years, and in England and Wales since 2011. All sunbeds must be supervised by staff north of the Border.
However, the poll found 4.5 per cent of under-18s are still using the machines. Cancer Research UK said many children had side-stepped the rules by tanning at home.
The number of youngsters who use the machines has reduced since the law came into force - from 6.8 per cent in 2008/9 to 4.5 per cent, according to research which will be presented at Public Health England's (PHE) annual National Cancer Intelligence Network conference in Birmingham.
The survey, conducted by PHE and West of England University, also found half of those who had used a sunbed had burned at least once as a result. Every child who admitted using an unsupervised coin-operated bed on a regular basis said they had burned at least once.
The poll, funded by Cancer Research UK, was conducted on 3,000 11 to 17-year-olds from across England, Wales and Scotland. It also found four in ten of the youngsters said they never been given health advice on the potential harms of sunbeds.
Professor Julia Verne, lead author and strategic public health lead of PHE's National Cancer Intelligence Network, said: "Supervision needs to improve to adhere to the legislation which is designed to protect young people from the harms of UV damage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article