A Facebook campaign has been launched to encourage 18-year-olds to vote in the upcoming General Elections.

The campaign, dubbed "use your age wisely" has been set up by the Electoral Commission to try and tackle the low voter registration levels.

An analysis of the December 1, 2014 electoral registers by the commission, found that there had been a 33 per cent fall in the number of 16 and 17-year-olds on the register compared with figures published in February/ March that year.

The campaign directs people to the register to vote website where they can complete an application form.

Michael Abbott, head of campaigns at the Electoral Commission, said: "We saw at the Scottish Independence Referendum that young people can be one of the most passionate and engaged groups in our democracy, but they need to know that they can only have a say, if they're registered.

"Turning 18 is an important rite of passage for young people, and gaining the right to vote in a General Election year is a huge part of that."

Analysis of the registers also found that university towns and cities had larger falls in the number of people added to their registers compared with other places.

The campaign will be using mobile advertising for the first time to directly encourage students to register to vote online - those on EE, O2 and Vodafone networks will receive a text message with the link to the website.

Mr Abbot added: "It's vital that with the General Election falling in term time that we encourage students to register to vote at their term time address, if that's where they intend to vote.

"This is the first time that we've used mobile advertising; and our continued partnership with Facebook builds on the successful campaigns we ran for last year’s referendum and on National Voter Registration Day this year."

To register to vote click here.