Adults in the north are spending an average of over four hours online each day according to a new report identifying people’s digital habits.
The data is revealed in the annual Online Nation report by Ofcom, which found that Northern Irish and English adults spend roughly 30 minutes less online each day than those in Scotland and Wales, with an average of four hours and 16 minutes.
NI adults use smartphones for the majority of their internet use, with an average of three hours and 15 minutes daily, compared to 38 minutes on tablet devices, and just 23 minutes on computers.
The time NI adults spend using computers to access online content was the lowest in the UK, where the overall average for computer use in this way is 32 minutes.
Smartphone users in the north and in Wales were more likely to use Apple devices than Android, whereas the opposite is true in England and Scotland.
The report also identifies that people aged 13 and above in the north were less likely than their counterparts in other parts of the UK to see potentially harmful online content while using the internet, at 66%.
This was in contrast to 68% in both England and Wales, and 71% in Scotland.
Social media sites and apps are by far where people are most likely to see harmful content, the report identifies.
Children aged between 13 and 17 were most likely to see harmful content on TikTok, while adults were most likely to see it on Facebook.
Meanwhile, data up to May of this year on the reach of online companies shows that 100% of all adults using the web in the north visited a site run by Alphabet, which owns giants including Google and YouTube.
Meta, the owners of Facebook and Whatsapp, had the second highest reach in NI at 99% of adults, and shopping behemoth Amazon third at 94%.
The BBC was the news site with the most reach in all parts of the UK, and in the north had the highest reach at 86% of adults, compared to 83% in both England and Scotland, and 82 percent in Wales.
The annual report comes ahead of the UK’s Online Safety Act coming into force early next year, which could see digital platforms fined by regulator Ofcom if they fail to comply with rules about harmful content, including violence and pornography.
Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said: “Ofcom is not a censor, and our new powers are not about taking content down. Our job is to tackle the root causes of harm.
“We know a safer life online cannot be achieved overnight, but Ofcom is ready to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge.”
