Women spend more time online than men, but worry more about online harms – Ofcom

28 November 2024, 00:04

A young girl using a mobile phone in the dark — Online Safety Act. Picture: PA

The regulator’s latest Online Nation report shows a stark contrast in the online habits of men and women.

Women are spending more time online than men, but are more concerned about online harms, new data from Ofcom shows.

The communications regulator’s latest Online Nation report found that across all adult groups and devices, women are spending 33 minutes more online each day than men, rising to an average of just over an hour longer among 18 to 24-year-olds.

Despite this, the research found that women were more likely than men to worry about the potential harms of being online, with women more concerned by issues such as online extremism, human trafficking, suicide and hateful or offensive content than men.

And among teenagers, girls and young women were found to be more concerned than boys about sexual or pornographic content, online misogyny and violent content.

The study found men were actually more likely to have had experience with encountering online harms such as misinformation, scams or fraud and hateful content, but women and girls were more likely to experience content promoting unhealthy eating or exercise and body-image related posts.

Ofcom’s study also highlighted other gendered online habits, with men found to be more likely to use generative AI tools or visit pornography websites, while women were found to be more likely to visit health and wellbeing sites.

Elsewhere, the study found that forum site Reddit had leapfrogged X, formerly Twitter, on the list of the most popular social media apps.

Based on the amount of time spent each day on a platform during a single month – May this year – Ofcom said YouTube was the most popular platform, followed by Facebook and its linked Messenger app, with Instagram, TikTok and Reddit completing the top five, and X now in sixth place.

By Press Association