The Children's Passive Online Measurement study explores the websites and apps visited by UK children aged 8-14 and how long was spent on the services visited.
Ofcom is the regulator for online safety in the UK. Our role is to make sure online services, like websites and apps, meet their duties to protect their users under the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’). To support these duties, it is essential that we have a robust evidence base on what people do online – the services they use and how much time they spend on them. It is to support this that Ofcom has carried out the Children’s Passive Online Measurement study.
The study measures a robust UK representative sample of online children aged 8-14s’ use of websites and apps across smartphones, tablets and computers. To collect this data the recruited children had passive monitoring software installed on the devices they used with the data being reported back anonymously. The children’s internet use was measured over a period of 28 consecutive days for each panellist.
Passive measurement of children’s online use is an important new tool that complements our broader programme of children’s research and engagement. Seeing children’s real online journeys brings us closer to understanding the challenges they face online and how to improve their lives online.
Download the Children's Passive Online Measurement report.
Interactive report: