Stats & Figures - Young People & The Web

August 13th, 2008 by mas | Filed under Innovation & Technology, Society & Issues.

According to the Office of National Statistics 15.23 Million households (61%) in the UK had access to the internet in 2007 and this was rising at roughly 1 million a year. Of these only 10% didn’t have broadband (down from 17% the previous year).

At the time of their survey 4% of 16 - 24 year olds had never used the internet, 90% had used it recently. Overall 16-24 year olds use the internet more than any other adult age group.

Of those that use the internet 70% of 16-24 year olds use it every day and 92% use it at least once a week.

18% of adults had accessed the internet via a mobile phone (no breakdown of age for this but I bet its higher for younger age groups - and I bet its increased rapidly since last year!)

Reasons given for not using the internet more (%) (by adults 16+):

Lack of time	52
Other reason	24
Lack of skills or knowledge	21
Connection is too slow	12
Security or privacy concerns	10
Cost of online content	9
Could incur additional connection and download costs	5
Not enough interesting content on the Internet	2

Some stats taken from the IPPR report ‘Behind the Screen: The hidden life of youth online’

80% of 12 to 15 year olds own a mobile phone
80% of 5 to 15 year olds have access to the internet at home
In addition to home access young people have access in schools, libraries, internet cafes as well as through digital TV, mobile phones and games consoles
99% of schools have internet access (access is largely restricted but restrictions like filters are seen to be easily bypassed by young people)
In 2006 young people spent an average of 6.2 hours a week online but this is thought to have increased since social networking sites have taken off and young people more recently have said they use instant messengers at least once a day and the IPPR research suggests that in fact young people spend between 3 and 4 hours a night using such services!
13% of 12 to 15 year olds have access to the internet in their bedroom
71% of 12 to 15 year olds use the internet mainly in their own home

I couldn’t find what I was originally looking for which is ‘how’ do young people use the internet? There are some stats from an LSE Report in 2006 which lists: