Children, women and older people dominate UK internet usage

Ofcom's latest Communications Market Report provides a fascinating insight into the dramatic changes taking place in the way UK citizens are using information and communication technology (the emphasis is mine):

Children
"Fewer children are playing console and computer games (61% regularly did so in 2005 down to 53% in 2007), watching videos and DVDs (59% did so regularly in 2005 and 38% in 2007) and listening to radio (40% listened regularly in 2005 and 20% in 2007). Instead, they are using their mobile phones more often (50% regularly did so in 2005 compared with 53% in 2007), surfing the internet (47% regularly in 2005 to 52% in 2007) and using MP3 players (20% regularly in 2005 to 28% in 2007)."

Young adults
"Among 25-34 year olds, women spend more time using the internet than men. In this age group, 2.18m young women users account for 55% of total time spent online. By comparison, just 1.83m 25-34 year old men in the UK use the internet."

Older people
"Older people are also consuming more media. The over 55s was the only age group to increase its average radio listening between 2002 and 2007 (up 5.5%). And older people are not just increasing their use of traditional media. Some 16% of over-65s use the web. These silver surfers spend an average of 42 hours online every month, more than any other age group. Indeed, far from being just a young person’s technology, one quarter of all UK internet users are over 50 and the over-50s account for 30% of total time spent online."

It is also interesting to see the take-up of social networking across Internet users in the various age groups: 15-25: 31%, 25-44: 24%, 45-64: 24%, 65+: 10%.