Young UK web users spend one day a week online

Younger internet users in the UK spent more than a day week online on average last year, according to research from the telecoms regulator.

Ofcom measured the biggest annual increase in time spent online in a decade in 2014, with adults surfing the internet for more than 20 hours a week, three and a half hours longer than in 2013.

People are now spending twice as much time online compared to 10 years ago, fuelled by use of tablets and smartphones, Ofcom said. The rise was most marked in internet users aged 16-24, who now spend 27 hours and 36 minutes online.

The biggest shift has been to internet access on the move, using smartphones and tablet computers over WiFi, 3G and, increasingly, 4G networks. The amount of time that people use the internet on the move has increased fivefold over the past 10 years to nearly two and a half hours a week.

Alison Preston, head of media literacy research at Ofcom, said: "We're now doing things like tweeting on tablets and watching soaps on smartphones for more than 20 hours each week."

Overall, the proportion of adults using the internet has risen by half - from six in 10 in 2005 to almost nine in 10 today.

However, 14 per cent of adults in the UK still do not use the internet - a figure that has remained stable since 2013. Six in 10 of these are aged over 65, and half are from poorer households.

More people are now watching TV and video on the internet, Ofcom found. More than a quarter of internet users regularly watch TV or films online, compared to one in 10 in 2007.

The use of social media has tripled since 2007 and nearly three quarters of adult internet users now have a social media profile, compared with less than a fifth in 2007.

Responding to what some have called the "social media election", more internet users told Ofcom that they visit political or campaigning websites, rising from 19 per cent in 2005 to 44 per cent in 2014. Ofcom polled 1,890 adults aged 16 and over for the research.

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