Article Details

Faith in the internet is fading among young Brits. Ofcom survey finds 18-34s increasingly see life online as bad for society and their mental health. Young Brits are souring on the internet, with increasing numbers seeing it as damaging to society and their mental health, according to latest research published by Ofcom. The UK's communications regulator found that in June 2025, just a third of those aged 18-34 agreed the internet is good for society, down from 42 percent a year earlier. While this fell for older age groups as well, it did so less sharply (34 percent versus 38 percent in 2024), meaning those aged 55 and above are proportionately more positive than younger people about the internet's impact on civilization. The research also found that more young adults disagreed the internet helps their mental health than agreed, reversing the previous year's findings. In June 2025, 35 percent of young adults disagreed that being online had a positive overall effect on their emotional wellbeing, while 31 percent agreed. In June 2024, 28 percent disagreed and 39 agreed. The questions were part of annual research carried out in the summer by pollster YouGov with 7,340 adults of all ages for Ofcom's Annual Online Nation report. Despite their increasing negativity, young adults in the UK spend significantly more time online than older age groups, averaging six hours and 20 minutes a day on personal (rather than work) devices, up ten minutes over the prior 12 months and much higher than the four hours and 30 minutes for all adults. So why are many of these digital natives, born between Sir Tim Berners-Lee's creation of the first web browser and server in 1990 and Apple's launch of the first iPhone in 2007, losing faith in the internet? One reason may be that their online experiences differ significantly from those of their elders, including more material chosen by algorithms than actively selected by users. A section of the research on potentially harmful online encounters found younger adults were most likely to have experienced these on Instagram, followed by TikTok. Overall, Facebook was the place people were most likely to encounter such material, but the likelihood of this increased with age. Among all young adults, 47 percent of potentially harmful encounters came from scrolling a feed, compared with just 26 percent for 55s and over. Another reason may be increasing interest in how the internet can damage young people, even if this tends to focus on those a bit younger than the group in question. This year's Ofcom research took place a few months after the March launch of Adolescence, a UK drama about a teenage murder suspect who was radicalized online, which was Netflix's most-watched show worldwide in the first half of this year. It was also shortly before Ofcom started enforcing the UK's Online Safety Act, which attempts to restrict content for those under 16, and Australia attempted to stop the same age group from operating social media accounts. Ofcom did find that young adults are more likely than older groups to manage their internet use by disabling notifications, using Do Not Disturb settings, pausing use of services, and deleting apps. A fifth felt they did not have a good balance between online and offline, compared with 13 percent of all adults. However, the group was less likely than older adults to report or flag potentially harmful content, with more than half choosing not to act on this type of material, saying they didn't consider it to be serious or harmful enough.