More time online, fewer believe it helps society – Ofcom report

Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report paints a detailed picture of internet use across the UK – showing just how embedded digital life has become, while also revealing where confidence is dropping, particularly when it comes to safety, mental health, and children’s experiences online.

Time spent online: adults clock up 4 hours 30 minutes a day

The average adult in the UK now spends 4 hours and 30 minutes online each day outside of work. That’s an increase of 10 minutes compared to last year. For working-age adults, access is close to universal – 95% of people aged 16 and above now have internet at home.

Younger adults are online the most:

• 18–24-year-olds: 6 hours 20 minutes daily
• Over-65s: 3 hours 20 minutes daily

Across every age group, women spend more time online than men. The daily average is 4 hours 43 minutes for women, while men spend 26 minutes less.

Most of that time is spent on smartphones. For men, phones account for about 75% of total online time. For women, it’s slightly higher. Men use computers more often than women, while women spend a bit more time on tablets.

Who’s still offline – and why that may not change soon

5% of UK adults still don’t have internet access at home. This group is mostly made up of older people:

• Only 1–3% of 16–54-year-olds are without home internet
• For those aged 65+, it’s 13%
• Among people aged 75 and over, that rises to 20%

Most of those currently offline have no plans to get connected. 81% say they are unlikely or certain not to get internet at home within the next year. Among over-65s without access, that figure increases to 97%.

The main reason isn’t cost, but lack of interest. A large majority say they don’t feel the internet is necessary for them. Others rely on someone else to go online on their behalf, and some still find using the internet too complex.

Cost is now less of a barrier than it used to be, but it hasn’t disappeared. 18% of those without internet say money is a reason they’re unlikely to get connected in the next 12 months – down from 27% in 2023. Setup costs are more of a concern than monthly bills, and worry about ongoing costs has fallen significantly.

Half of online time goes to just two tech giants

51% of the time UK adults spend online is now taken up by services owned by Alphabet (Google, YouTube) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp).

Leading platforms by time spent

• YouTube is used by nearly every online adult, averaging 51 minutes per day – up from 47 minutes a year ago
• Google Search remains the most-used tool for finding information
• Facebook and Messenger combined are used by over 90% of online adults, with users spending about 40+ minutes a day on the platforms
• WhatsApp use keeps rising – 90% of adults use it, and daily use has grown to 17 minutes per person

Amazon, Microsoft, and the BBC round out the top five. Among UK-based services, the BBC remains the most used.

People are also using more apps. On average, each adult uses 41 smartphone apps each month – up from 38 last year. WhatsApp is still the most-used app, followed by Facebook and Google Maps.

Search is still led by Google – but AI is shifting habits

Google continues to dominate search. However, the nature of search results is changing:

• About 30% of search queries now include an AI-generated summary
• 53% of people say they regularly see AI answers alongside search results

Most of this is passive – people are still using traditional search engines, but the format of results is changing. At the same time, AI chatbots like ChatGPT are starting to take on a larger role in search behaviour, with extremely high visit volumes.

YouTube and Meta dominate social platforms – TikTok rising, X falling

When it comes to video and social media:

• YouTube remains the most-used platform by both audience size and time spent
• Facebook and Messenger are still widely used, especially among people aged 35+
• Instagram is more popular with younger adults
• TikTok is now used by 56% of UK adults. Among 18–34s, average time spent is close to one hour per day
• X (previously Twitter) is in decline – its share of users has fallen noticeably in the past year

There are clear gender trends as well. Pinterest is used mostly by women (69% of its visitors are female), while X and Reddit are both used more heavily by men, particularly in terms of time spent.

Messaging: WhatsApp dominates, Messenger in decline

WhatsApp now clearly leads in messaging. It’s used by 90% of UK online adults, and 74% of them use it daily – up from 64% last year.

Facebook Messenger is still the second most-used app, but both its total users and daily activity have fallen compared to last year.

Age checks on adult content lead to VPN surge

From July 2025, UK sites that offer content potentially harmful to children – including pornography – have been required to implement “Highly Effective Age Assurance” systems.

All of the top ten adult sites by visits from the UK now have age checks in place. These ten sites account for about 25% of total adult-content visits.

As these age checks came in, VPN use surged:

• Daily VPN usage jumped from 650,000 before the July rule change to over 1.4 million in mid-August
• While that peak has passed, current usage is still far higher than before, with about 900,000 daily VPN users

Adults still rely heavily on the internet for news

97% of adults who go online visited at least one online news source in May 2025. Time spent on news sites averages 10 minutes per day – unchanged from the previous year.

The most-used brands for online news are:

• BBC (used by over 75% of UK online adults)
• The Sun
• The Guardian, which has moved up in the rankings since last year

60% of adults now get their news through intermediaries like social platforms, search engines, or aggregators. Four of the top ten sources of online news are now platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X.

Perception of the internet is shifting – benefits still outweigh risks, but only just

While most people still see being online as beneficial, the overall perception is softening:

• Only 33% now believe the internet is good for society, down from 40%
• 65% think the personal benefits of going online outweigh the risks, down from 71% two years ago
• Just 29% say going online has a positive effect on their mental health – 28% say it has a negative effect

Fewer people feel they can be more open online:

• 25% feel freer to be themselves online, down from 30%
• 35% feel it’s easier to express opinions online than offline

Safety expectations vary – especially between women and men

48% of adults want more safety tools added to platforms – up from 40% in 2023. But there’s a sharp gender difference:

• 57% of women want stronger safety measures
• 38% of men say the same

Most people think the platforms themselves should be responsible for what appears online. When asked about responsibility:

• 37% think platforms should control content
• 21% think it should be up to the person posting
• 42% say search engines should manage what appears in results

61% of adults say they feel confident they can stay safe online. But that drops to 54% among over-55s and 55% among women.

Most adults (56%) still believe common sense is enough to avoid harm online. Only 13% think it’s impossible to avoid harmful content.

Children aged 8–14 spend up to 4 hours a day online – often at night

Children aged 8–14 spend nearly 3 hours a day online using phones, tablets or computers. That time increases by age:

• 8–9-year-olds: about 2 hours a day
• 13–14-year-olds: about 4 hours a day

This doesn’t include games consoles.

Most of that time is focused on a few services:

• YouTube: used by nearly all children in this age group, averaging 48 minutes daily
• Snapchat: fewer users than YouTube but time spent is almost the same (45 minutes)

Together, these two platforms make up over half of total online time for 8–14-year-olds.

Other frequently used services include Google Search, WhatsApp, TikTok and Facebook – even among children younger than the platforms’ official minimum age.

A significant portion of use happens late:

• 15–24% of usage on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp happens between 9pm and 5am
• 4–10% takes place specifically between 11pm and 5am

Most children say they’re happy online – but older teens report more problems

Among 8–17-year-olds:

• 91% say they’re happy with what they do online
• 81% say the content they see is appropriate for their age
• But only 31% say it’s always appropriate

Younger children are more likely to be happy than teens. Teenagers report seeing more unsuitable content, especially on social platforms.

When it comes to self-esteem:

• 56% of children say being online makes them feel better about themselves
• 3% say it has a mostly negative effect
• A third say it’s a mix of both

Children with health conditions and older teens who identify as LGBTQ+ are more likely to report harmful content and less likely to feel good online. This points to a connection between what they encounter and how they feel.

Many children use the internet to support their wellbeing

Among children aged 13–17 who go online:

• 69% use online services to support their wellbeing
• 45% say it helps them relax
• 32% say it improves their mood

ASMR and self-improvement content are widely used, particularly among 11–17s. But the experience isn’t always positive:

• Over half of ASMR users say it helps them relax
• 52% say they dislike at least one thing about ASMR content
• For self-improvement content, that figure rises to 70%, often due to harmful themes like body shaming

At the same time, nearly all children say the internet helps them:

• Learn about the world
• Develop new skills
• Keep in touch with friends

Some key stats:

• 78% of 13–17-year-olds say the internet helps with schoolwork
• 76% of 8–14-year-olds visited an educational website in a month
• 65% of 13–17-year-olds say online services help them maintain friendships – especially girls (71% vs 60% of boys)

Social platforms and messaging apps are a major part of this – over 70% of teens say they help them feel closer to friends.

“Brain rot” and content overload

Some teenagers report negative effects after extended screen time, particularly on fast-paced platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

They describe the feeling as “brain rot” – content that’s chaotic, repetitive or meaningless, leaving them overstimulated or unfocused after watching.

Harmful content is still widespread – but most kids take action

Before new child-safety rules took effect in July 2025:

• 70% of 11–17-year-olds said they had seen content harmful to children within the past four weeks
• 30% had seen content they believed should never be shown to children

Most common harmful content:

• Bullying (seen by 58%)
• Hate content (49%)
• Encouragement of dangerous challenges (30%)
• Harmful substances (28%)

About two-thirds of children who saw harmful content took some sort of action:

• 15% used negative feedback tools
• 11% reported it
• 10% blocked the person
• 10% told an adult

But the most common response was still to ignore it (30%).

Children are spending online – and regretting it

58% of 8–17-year-olds said they spent money online in the last month. That includes in-game purchases, social media spending and other online platforms.

Among them:

• 32% regretted at least one purchase made in a game
• 43% regretted a purchase on social media
• 42% said they didn’t understand what they were buying in games

The features that influence kids to spend include:

• Character customisation (30%)
• Adverts (27%)
• Suggestions from friends or family (23%)
• Content by influencers (22%)