They are now sending four times as many texts per day than in 2004, spending nearly a quarter of their time on social networking site like Facebook and Twitter and spending 3 hours and 45 minutes watching TV per day.

“For the first time we can see just how central media and communications are to our lives – on average we use them for nearly half our waking hours,” said Peter Phillips, Ofcom Partner, Strategy & Market Developments.

“Younger people have shown the biggest changes in how we use media – particularly using different media at the same time.  But the divide between younger and older people’s use of technology is starting to narrow as more older people are getting online and finding that things like email are very important to them.”

There has been an increase in smartphone ownership, with growth particularly strong over the last year, up by 81 percent from 7.2 million user in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May 2010. In June 2010, over a quarter of people in the UK (26.5 per cent) said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously.

In the first quarter of 2010 nearly a quarter of adults (23 per cent) accessed content or sent emails on their mobile phones, up from 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. Among 15-24s this rises to 45 per cent.

Surfing the Internet via mobile phones is the fastest growing mobile media activity with 1 million new users during the first quarter of 2010 (taking the total to 13.5 million, compared to 9 million in the first quarter of 2009).

Facebook was the most popular mobile site in terms of time people spent on it accounting for almost half (45%) of total time spent online on mobiles in December 2009.

UK consumers sent a record number of texts (104 billion) in 2009 – equivalent to 1700 for every person in the UK (up 25 per cent on 2008 and 290 per cent on 2004).

Social networking accounts for nearly a quarter of all time spent on the Internet (23% compared to 9% in 2007.) This has been driven by the rapid growth of Facebook which grew by 31 percent.
 

The majority (83%) of these children have their profile set so it can only be seen by friends, and 4 percent have a profile that can’t be seen. Parents of these children who are aware that their child visits social networking sites (93%) also say they check on what their child is doing on such sites.  However one in six (17 per cent) parents of this group are not aware that their child visits social networking sites.

Downloading or watching TV episodes or movies on the Internet has increased by 4 percent in the past year by children aged 8-15 who use the Internet at home (from 17 percent in 2008 to 21 percent in 2009).

Ofcom found nearly half (44%) of those aged 12-15 believe that downloading shared copies of films and music for free should not be illegal, with 18 percent saying they don’t know and 38 percent saying it should be illegal. Boys were more likely to say it should not be illegal (48%).

Blogs or sites like Wikipedia where users can add or change information are visited by 18 percent of those aged 8-11 and almost half of those 12-15 (48%). Users of these sites aged 8-11 are much more likely than 12-15 to believe that the information on these types of sites is all or mostly true (70 per cent vs. 48 per cent) with boys aged 8-15 more likely than girls of this age to believe that all or most of the information is true (59 per cent vs. 46 per cent).

Two in five users of social networking sites aged 8-11 and 12-15 also believe that all or most of the information on these sites is true (38% and 40% respectively). One in four aged 12-15 (27%) who use search engines think that they only return results from websites with truthful information.
 

In its annual report Ofcom said Britons spent four times as much time on computers, averaging 24 minutes a day, and double as much time on mobile phones in 2007 as in 2002.

Average household spending on communication services declined slightly, due to bundled services and discount broadband prices. More consumers also switched providers to get better deals.

"We are spending more and more time with our communications devices but spending less on them," said Peter Phillips, partner, strategy and market development with Ofcom.

"Our devotion to watching, listening and staying in touch wherever and whenever we want shows no sign of diminishing and, with healthy competition, overall prices offer increasing value for money. That is what consumers demand."

Online advertising spending was dominated by paid search which accounted for $2.9 billion, with the remainder divided between display and classified ads.

Televsion advertising was flat at $6.5 billion, with mainstream channels accounting for $4.4 billion.

Among households with access to the Internet, 32 percent watched video clips on sites such as YouTube, or webcasts, up from 21 percent in 2006.

Broadband penetration reached 58 percent of British households, up from 52 percent the previsous year.
 

Silly? Not really. Not when you consider a new survey out of the UK that suggests 49% of kids aged between 8 and 17 have a social media profile.

The Ofcom report looks into the impact of social networks on people’s lives in the UK as part of a wider media literacy campaign and surveyed 5,000 adults and more than 3,000 children.

“Social networks are clearly a very important part of people’s lives and are having an impact on how people live their lives,” said James Thickett, director of market research at Ofcom.

Why is this important to internet marketers? It should be obvious, but I’ll spell it out. Think of all the 20+ years olds that grew-up using search engines such as Google. What do we have now? Millions of young men and women entering the workplace, all acutely aware of just how beneficial search engines can be.

Fast forward 10 years or so and those 8 to 17-year olds, who admit to having a social network profile, will hit the workforce. When they do, they’ll have a new mindset: valuable information can be found, not in a search engine, but in a network of people with similar interests.

If you’re strictly a search engine marketer, make hay while the sun’s still shining. I predict you’ve got about 10 years left to make the good money. After that, you’d better have a few social media marketing tricks up your sleeve, otherwise you could find you’re obsolete and back in that corporate job you worked so hard to escape–probably working for a 21-year old that does “get” social media.

(The report also looks at the real dangers kids face from revealing too much info on social networks. That doesn’t fit with our internet marketing focus, but go read it anyway!)

Comments

 49% Of UK Children (8-17) Have A Social Networking Profile

"Despite the fact that the minimum age for most major social networking sites is usually 13 (14 on MySpace), 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that they have a profile on a site," states Ofcom.  "[A]lmost half (49%) of children aged 8-17 who use the internet have set up their own profile on a social networking site."

Then, "Two-thirds of parents claim to set rules on their child’s use of social networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set such rules."  Neither of these numbers are especially high, and the discrepancy between them suggests that some kids aren’t being held back in any way.

On the (potentially) bright side, it seems like the UK is preparing to do something about these problems.  Ofcom’s report comes less than a week after the Byron Review‘s release; both have received a fair amount of coverage, and focus more on issues of education than regulation.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace took independent action in response to all the attention.