Source: OFCOM
Extract from Press Release
UK adults’ concerns about the internet have dropped steadily since 2005, falling from seven in ten (70 per cent) users to half (50 per cent) by 2011, with confidence online at high levels (84 per cent), according to Ofcom’s Adults Media Use and Attitudes report.
The fall in concern comes as people are spending increasing amounts of time on the internet. The average user now says they are online for over 15 hours each week, an increase of five hours since 2005. The internet is increasingly part of people’s everyday lives wherever they are, and eight in ten adults (79%) now go online on any device in any location – up by 20 percentage points compared to 2005.
Social networking is continuing to grow in popularity and three fifths of adult internet users (59 per cent) say they now have a profile on a social networking site. However, the increase has slowed, with a rise of five percentage points since 2010, compared to increases of ten percentage points in 2010 and 22 percentage points in 2009.
Adults are increasingly turning to the internet for information. Seven in ten (68 per cent) users have accessed the internet to find details about public services, compared to half (49 per cent) in 2005. And eight in ten (79 per cent) have searched online for information about leisure time activities, up from six in ten (61 per cent) in 2005. However, those aged over 65 are less likely than other age-groups to be online – with some 51 per cent saying they do not intend to get the internet at home, compared to 15 per cent of the population as a whole.
Three in ten (29 per cent) internet users said they have had a virus on their home PC in the past twelve months, with a similar number receiving unsolicited emails directing them to a website that asks them for personal information. Almost nine out of ten (87 per cent) home internet users who access through a PC, laptop or netbook said they have anti-virus software installed on their computers at home.
Click here to read the full report
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