UK teenagers are spending longer than ever online

Internet use in the UK has doubled in the past decade, thanks mostly to teenagers and young adults who access the internet on tablets and smartphones, new research has shown.

The research, called 'Media use and attitude' was carried out by communications watchdog Ofcom and found that people in the UK have spent in average of 20 hours and 30 minutes online each week in 2014.

That number ten years ago was 9 hours, 54 minutes.

The biggest jump in use was noticed among younger users, those aged between 16 and 24. They spent 27 hours, 36 minutes online each week last year, which is three times more than in 2005, when they spent 10 hours 24 minutes online.

The trend has been driven by an increase in the take-up of tablets and smartphones over the last five years, Ofcom said.

When it comes to devices used to access the Internet, desktop and laptop computers are still the number one way to go online, even though smartphone and tablet use has increased dramatically.

Smartphone use has more than doubled in the last five years, from 30 percent of adults in 2010 to 66 percent in 2014. Five years ago, only 5 percent of adults reported going online over a tablet -- today that number is 39 percent.

With such a rise in smartphone usage, it is no wonder that the amount of time people are online while out and about has increased five-fold over the past ten years.

The full report can be found here.

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