Around a fifth of the time youngsters aged eight to 14 spend on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTookay and WhatsApp is between the hours of 9pm and 5am, the media watchdog has discovered
Around a fifth of the time youngsters aged eight to 14 spend on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTookay and WhatsApp is between the hours of 9pm and 5am, the media watchdog has discovered.
Ofcom’s annual report, revealed on Wednesday, mentioned a “important quantity of the time on-line spent by youngsters is at evening”.
Some 4-10% of their time throughout the 4 social media apps is spent between 11pm-5am, whereas 15-24% is between 9pm and 5am, relying on the platform, it mentioned. They are the 4 of the primary companies utilized by youngsters.
Some youngsters raised considerations with Ofcom about losing time consuming addictive “mind rot” content material on social media, which is classed as materials that’s fast-paced, chaotic and infrequently nonsensical.
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One 13-year-old woman instructed the research: “I discover it actually arduous to look at motion pictures… So usually if I’m watching one thing on Netflix. I get actually bored of it and I simply go on my telephone and I don’t even realise it, I’m simply scrolling on TikTookay then I have a look at the time and I’m like, ‘what the hell, I must go to mattress.’”
Elsewhere, Ofcom’s deep dive into the nation’s on-line habits discovered 58% of 11-17-year-olds noticed bullying content material on-line this 12 months, 49% noticed content material associated to hate, and 30% mentioned they noticed content material encouraging them to do harmful stunts or challenges.
But younger folks additionally discovered optimistic makes use of of the web, with seven in ten (69%) 13–17-year-olds logging on to assist their wellbeing and almost eight in ten (78%) saying the web helps with schoolwork.
For adults, Ofcom’s report discovered Facebook continues to be the platform on which customers are almost certainly to report encountering their most up-to-date potential hurt.
The report additionally discovered X, previously Twitter, is the one high ten social media service the place males are the predominant guests.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be altering the UK’s search expertise, with ChatGPT having 1.8 billion UK visits within the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the identical interval final 12 months (2024).
But Ofcom additionally discovered 5% of UK residents aged 16 and over reported not having web entry at residence this 12 months. This rises to twenty% amongst these aged 75 and over.
It comes because the Government on Wednesday launched 80 native schemes to offer free assist to get folks on-line. The tasks have obtained backing from the £11.7million Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund.
Minister for Digital Inclusion Liz Lloyd mentioned: “This Government is tearing down the boundaries to success and making the long run work for all, not simply the lucky.”
Ofcom’s fieldwork was carried out earlier than it enforced its youngsters’s codes, in July. Its steering advises tech corporations on learn how to cut back hurt to youngsters on-line, as required by the UK’s Online Safety Act.
