Women and Oldies Top UK Web Users, Say Ofcom

"The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionising how Britons spend their time, says Ofcom's annual report. It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.

Surprisingly, it also shows that women, in some age groups, are the dominant web users and older web users spend more time online than any group.

Among children it showed that web and mobile phone use is growing at the expense of video games.

The average Briton now spends 50 hours per week on the phone, using the net, watching TV or listening to the radio. However, the mix of how much time is spent on each one has changed radically over the last few years.

Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.

The report revealed big differences in the technologies that different sectors of the population prefer.

For instance, among Britons aged 25-34, women account for 55% of the time this group spends online, said the report.

The 16% of the over-65s that use the web spend 42 hours per month online - more than any other age group.

Children are in the vanguard of the move to make more of new media. The report said that 75% of 11 year olds have their own TV, games console and mobile phone." - BBC News Online.