Mr Neate, campaign managing director, said 57% of UK households had a internet connection and 69% of those were linked up via broadband. In the first six months of 2006, British shoppers spent more than £13bn online, the survey found, and 52% of Britons questioned did their banking online.

But hand-in-hand with this went worries about the dangers greater net use posed, said Mr Neate. He said 18% of those questioned said they would not shop online because they were concerned about becoming a victim of net crime.

The survey found 17% of people had no anti-virus software and 22% had no firewall. A further 23% said they had opened an e-mail attachment that came from an unknown source.