A leading children’s charity has said that one of the most popular global websites for children is also poses the riskiest online environment.

Buisiness Insider reports that both YouTube and Facebook have been named as high risk across all categories relating to dark themes kids may encounter on the internet – suicide, violence, bullying, sexual, drink and drugs.

Joining them in the highest risk bracket, oddly, was 14-year-old game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Twitter and Reddit were both ranked as high risk in three categories while Instagram and Snapchat were in the red in two each.

The results were drawn up from reviews sourced from over 4,000 young people and parents.

Held to account

"Facebook and YouTube still do not provide any meaningful information on the volume of reports relating to children, and the outcomes of such reports. These are woeful examples of the transparency that we can expect if we continue with self-regulation,” John Carr, secretary of the UK Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety, said.

"The effect of this lack of transparency is that social networks are not being held to account for the measures they take to protect children, nor are they held to account for whether these measures are effective."

The site adds that UK culture secretary Matt Hancock revealed at the weekend that “the government invited 14 companies to discuss better protections for children, and only four showed up” – attendees included Facebook, Google and Twitter.

Get the latest news, interviews and in-depth analysis on Twitter and Facebook.