Overview
- Adults now average four and a half hours online daily, with services from Alphabet and Meta accounting for over half of total time and YouTube reaching 94% of adults for 51 minutes a day.
- Teens aged 13–14 spend about four hours online daily, 10–12-year-olds around three hours, and 8–9-year-olds about two hours, excluding games consoles.
- Late-night use is common: 15–24% of 8–14s’ time on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp occurs between 9pm–5am, 4–10% between 11pm–5am, and 64% used devices overnight at least once in four weeks.
- Children reported overstimulating “brain rot” content, and Ofcom recorded exposure to bullying (58%), hate (49%) and dangerous stunt content (30%), with many taking steps such as reporting, blocking or telling an adult.
- Generative AI use surged as ChatGPT logged 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, while digital exclusion persisted with 5% of adults offline, prompting 80 new government-backed local inclusion schemes funded with £11.7 million.