Our latest Online Nation report explores how adults and children in the UK experience life online. From the sites and apps we use every day, to how people feel about what they do and what they encounter online.
We’re spending even more time online as a nation
Adults now spend an average of four and a half hours online a day – up by 10 minutes on last year. Women spend 26 minutes a day longer online than men, with a daily average of 4hrs 43 mins.
Most of time online is spent on a smartphone, where adults use an average of 41 apps a month. WhatsApp, Facebook and Google Maps are the three most commonly used apps among adults.
Half of all time online is now spent on Alphabet and Meta-owned services
Two major tech firms now account for more than half of the time people in the UK spend online.
YouTube is the most used Alphabet-owned service, used by 94% of adults. Time on YouTube is increasing, reaching an average of 51 minutes a day, not including the TV set. The combination of Facebook and Messenger (93% adults) is the most widely used Meta service, followed by WhatsApp (90% adults).
AI is shaking up search
Google Search is used by four in five (82%) adults. It is by far the most used search service in the UK, with 3 billion searches a month.
AI is changing the UK’s search experience. About 30% of searches now show AI overviews, and more than half (53%) of adults say they see these summaries often. In most cases, they aren’t seeking these but finding them now included by their search services.
Generative AI services are gaining traction, with more people actively seeking them out. ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in same period of 2024.
Adults are less positive about the impact of the internet
This year, only a third of adults (33%) said they feel the internet is good for society – down from 40% last year. And while nearly two-thirds (65%) of adults believe the personal benefits of being online outweigh the risks, this figure has declined steadily from 71% two years ago.
Fewer adults feel freer to be themselves online than offline this year (25%, down from 30% last year), and only 35% feel they can share opinions more easily online than offline.
What the UK’s children are doing online: social media, schoolwork and spending regrets
Younger Gen Z and the eldest Gen Alphas are mobile-first, video-native internet users. Children aged 8–14 spend almost 3 hours online daily, rising to 4 hours for 13–14-year-olds and about two hours for 8–9-year-olds. This only counts time on smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers - not games consoles.
YouTube and Snapchat lead the way when it comes to screen time. Across 8–14s, children spend about 48 minutes a day on YouTube and 45 minutes on Snapchat - together making up around half of their total online time. Almost all 8-14-year-olds use YouTube (96%) and Google Search (95%). WhatsApp (63%) and TikTok (58%) also rank highly.
Late-night scrolling is common. Across four of the main services used by children - YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp - 15-24% of the time spent for the whole 8-14 age range happens between 9pm and 5am. 4–10% of usage happens after 11pm, depending on the platform.
Most children are happy with their online lives
Overall, nine in ten (91%) children aged 8-17 say they are happy with the things that they do online.
Teenagers use social media and messaging apps to stay connected. Almost three-quarters (72%) of 13-17s who use these platforms say they help them feel closer to friends. Girls aged 13-17 are more likely than boys of the same age to see being online as good for helping to build and maintain friendships (71% vs 60%).
Overall, seven in ten (69%) 13–17-year-olds go online to support their wellbeing, mainly to relax (45%) or lift their mood (32%). Nearly eight in ten (78%) say the internet helps with schoolwork, and more than half (55%) use it to learn new skills.
But they’re mindful of doomscrolling – and ‘brain-rot’
Some of the children we spoke to reflected on the negative impacts of spending too long scrolling on their smartphone. They used the term “brain rot” to describe both the type of content and the feeling it leaves behind. This content is fast-paced, chaotic, and often nonsensical and can leave viewers overstimulated and disoriented.
Reclaiming their online space – Gen Z are more likely to act on harmful content
While we found that seven in ten 11-17 year olds had seen or heard harmful content online in the last four weeks, we also found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of them had taken action after encountering such content.
Actions included using platform tools like the ‘dislike’ button (15%), reporting content (11%), blocking the person who posted the content (10%), or telling an adult (10%).
Importantly, we spoke to children about this before our Protection of Children Codes of Practice came into force in July 2025. Under our new rules, sites and apps must take steps to prevent children from encountering the most harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and pornography. These steps include age checks and ensuring this content doesn’t appear in children’s ‘for you’ feeds, and they must also have improved reporting tools for children to use. They must also act to protect children from misogynistic, violent, hateful or abusive material, online bullying and dangerous challenges.
Online retail remorse – younger users regretting their online purchases
Almost six in ten (58%) children aged 8-17 said they had spent money online in the past month, whether on social media sites, video-sharing platforms, or while they were gaming.
Children tell us that they were encouraged to spend money in various ways online, including character customisation (30%), adverts (27%), recommendations from friends or family (23%) and influencer content (22%).
But a third of children (32%) regretted the purchases they’d made in-game, and 43% regretted purchases made on social media. While 42% were unclear on what they even were buying in games.
