Ofcom’s latest Online Nation report explores how adults and children in the UK experience life online; from the sites and apps used every day, to how people feel about what they do and what they encounter online.

Adults now spend an average of four and a half hours online a day – up by 10 minutes on last year. Women spend 26 minutes a day longer online than men, with a daily average of 4hrs 43 mins. Most of time online is spent on a smartphone, where adults use an average of 41 apps a month. WhatsApp, Facebook and Google Maps are the three most commonly used apps among adults.

Half of all time online is now spent on Alphabet and Meta-owned services

Two major tech firms now account for more than half of the time people in the UK spend online.

YouTube is the most used Alphabet-owned service, used by 94 per cent of adults. Time on YouTube is increasing, reaching an average of 51 minutes a day, not including the TV set. The combination of Facebook and Messenger (93 per cent adults) is the most widely used Meta service, followed by WhatsApp (90 per cent adults).

AI is shaking up search

Google Search is used by four in five (82 per cent) adults. It is by far the most used search service in the UK, with 3 billion searches a month.

AI is changing the UK’s search experience. About 30 per cent of searches now show AI overviews, and more than half (53 per cent) of adults say they see these summaries often. In most cases, they aren’t seeking these but finding them now included by their search services.

Generative AI services are gaining traction, with more people actively seeking them out. ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in same period of 2024.

Adults are less positive about the impact of the internet

This year, only a third of adults (33 per cent) said they feel the internet is good for society – down from 40 per cent last year. And while nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of adults believe the personal benefits of being online outweigh the risks, this figure has declined steadily from 71 per cent two years ago.

Fewer adults feel freer to be themselves online than offline this year (25 per cent, down from 30 per cent last year), and only 35 per cent feel they can share opinions more easily online than offline.

What the UK’s children are doing online: social media, schoolwork and spending regrets

Younger Gen Z and the eldest Gen Alphas are mobile-first, video-native internet users. Children aged 8–14 spend almost 3 hours online daily, rising to 4 hours for 13–14-year-olds and about two hours for 8–9-year-olds. This only counts time on smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers – not games consoles.

YouTube and Snapchat lead the way when it comes to screen time. Across 8–14s, children spend about 48 minutes a day on YouTube and 45 minutes on Snapchat – together making up around half of their total online time. Almost all 8-14-year-olds use YouTube (96 per cent) and Google Search (95 per cent). WhatsApp (63 per cent) and TikTok (58 per cent) also rank highly.

Late-night scrolling is common. Across four of the main services used by children – YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp – 15-24 per cent of the time spent for the whole 8-14 age range happens between 9pm and 5am. Betweem 4 and 10 per cent of usage happens after 11pm, depending on the platform.

Most children are happy with their online lives

Overall, nine in ten (91 per cent) children aged 8-17 say they are happy with the things that they do online.

Teenagers use social media and messaging apps to stay connected. Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of 13-17s who use these platforms say they help them feel closer to friends. Girls aged 13-17 are more likely than boys of the same age to see being online as good for helping to build and maintain friendships (71 per cent vs 60 per cent).

Overall, seven in ten (69 per cent) 13–17-year-olds go online to support their wellbeing, mainly to relax (45 per cent) or lift their mood (32 per cent). Nearly eight in ten (78 per cent) say the internet helps with schoolwork, and more than half (55 per cent) use it to learn new skills.

But they’re mindful of doomscrolling – and ‘brain-rot’

Some of the children Ofcom spoke to reflected on the negative impacts of spending too long scrolling on their smartphone. They used the term ‘brain rot’ to describe both the type of content and the feeling it leaves behind. This content is fast-paced, chaotic, and often nonsensical and can leave viewers overstimulated and disoriented.

Reclaiming their online space – Gen Z are more likely to act on harmful content

While Ofcom found that seven in ten 11-17 year olds had seen or heard harmful content online in the last four weeks, the media regulator also found that nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of them had taken action after encountering such content.

Actions included using platform tools like the ‘dislike’ button (15 per cent), reporting content (11 per cent), blocking the person who posted the content (10 per cent), or telling an adult (10 per cent).

Online retail remorse 

Almost six in ten (58 per cent) children aged 8-17 said they had spent money online in the past month, whether on social media sites, video-sharing platforms, or while they were gaming.

Children said that they were encouraged to spend money in various ways online, including character customisation (30 per cent), adverts (27 per cent), recommendations from friends or family (23 per cent) and influencer content (22 per cent).

But a third of children (32 per cent) regretted the purchases they’d made in-game, and 43 per cent regretted purchases made on social media. While 42 per cent were unclear on what they even were buying in games.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Consumer Behaviour, Mobile, OTT, Research, Social Media

Tags: facebook, instagram, meta, Ofcom, tiktok, youtube