Children spending average of nearly three hours online a day, new data reveals
The figures were released the day after Australia enforced its social media ban for under-16s in a world first
Children between the ages of eight and 14 are spending nearly three hours online each day on average, new data has revealed.
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Teenagers aged from 13 and 14 are using their smartphones, tablets or laptops for as much as four hours per day while ten and 12-year-olds are spending around three hours online.
Meanwhile eight and nine-year-olds are on their tablets for two hours on average, according to the data from Ofcom.
The communications regulator's latest online nation study, which did not include use of game consoles, also found youngsters were spending a significant amount of time online on phones and other devices late into the night, describing such use as "not unusual" in 2025.
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Some 15 per cent to 24 per cent of time spent by those aged eight to 14 on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp – the four main services used by the age group – happened between 9pm and 5am.
Some four per cent to ten per cent took place between 11pm and 5am.
Data collected through the children's passive online measurement 2025 research revealed about two- thirds (64%) of the age group used their smartphone, tablet or computer between 11pm and 5am at least once over a four-week period.
The figures were released the day after Australia enforced its social media ban for under-16s in a world first.
Ofcom found about nine out of ten children aged eight to 17 in the UK were happy with their online activity.
Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of 13 to 17-year-olds say social media platforms help them feel closer to friends while 69 per cent go online to support their wellbeing, with 78 per cent saying the internet helps with schoolwork.
Ofcom stated: "The term 'brain rot’'was used by some children to describe both a genre of content and the feeling that spending hours on their devices left them with.
"Brain rot content is characterised by its frenetic, choppy and nonsensical nature, leaving viewers feeling overstimulated and sometimes disoriented."
Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver warned last week that social media is "chipping away at attention spans" and promoting disrespectful behaviour.
Seven out of ten 11 to 17-year-olds saw or heard harmful content online over a four-week period, with almost two-thirds taking action such as using a dislike button, reporting content, blocking a user or telling an adult, the report showed.
Almost six out of ten children (58 per cent) aged eight to 17 said they had spent money online in the past month, whether on social media sites, video-sharing platforms or while gaming.
Meanwhile adults in the UK spend an average of four-and-a-half hours online a day – an increase of ten minutes compared with last year, with 18 to 24-year-olds averaging six hours and 20 minutes a day.
Women are spending 26 minutes a day longer online than men, with a daily average of four hours 43 minutes, compared with four hours and 17 minutes.
People use an average of 41 apps a month – three more than last year – and WhatsApp, Facebook and Google Maps are the most popular.
Ofcom also found that ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, compared with 368 million in the same period in 2024, a jump of around 1.4 billion.