UK Adults Spend 16.8 Hours Online and Visit 19 Websites Per Week

Ofcom’s latest annual Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report 2013 reveals that internet use is continuing to rise but sadly 15% of the UK population still do not have the internet at home and 85% of those claimed this was due to a “lack of interest” (23% said cost and 19% pointed to the lack of a computer or related kit).

The study also found that over half (53%) of UK adults now use a mobile phone to go online (rises to 86% among Smartphone users), while 16% use a tablet computer (16%), another 16% prefer games consoles / players and 13% also get online via portable media players (12%).

Internet users are now more likely than in 2011 to use WiFi protection (62% vs. 52%), which while good still means that a third are likely to be operating a wireless network without adequate security. Speaking of security, 52% of internet users claim to have experienced SPAM (unwanted emails) and 25% have suffered from a computer virus (25%) or email phishing (26%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly 55% of internet users also claim to use the same passwords for most websites and 25% said that this was because they had problems remembering their password, which was more common among users aged 55-64 (33%) and less likely among 16-24s (18%).

A similar proportion of users (26%) said they tended to use easy-to-remember passwords like birthdays or names. Needless to say that it’s important to have different and strong passwords (mixing letters, numbers, special characters etc.) and there are plenty of free apps around that can help you to manage them.

James Thickett, Ofcoms Director of Research, said:

“While our research shows that some people are still taking security risks online, they clearly feel these are outweighed by the benefits that the internet brings. We are seeing more and more adults turning to the internet for information and as a way of keeping in touch.”

In terms of what everybody actually does online..

The Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report 2013 (PDF)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/../2013_Adult_ML_Tracker.pdf