The Oxford Internet Surveys

Internet Use, Behaviour and Attitudes in Great Britain

2003-2015

Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford

Percent Internet Use59 - 7071 - 7475 - 7778 - 8384 - 8788 - 89

Edinburgh 76%Glasgow 77%

Newcastle-upon-Tyne 63%

Middlesbrough 61%

Dundee 74%

Aberdeen 76%

Liverpool 75%

Manchester 80%

Sheffield 77%

Nottingham 86%

Leicester 87%

Leeds 78%

York 78%

Bristol 86%Cardiff 75%

Swansea 72%

Birmingham 80%

Southampton 86%

Greater London 86%

29

58

70

83 84

58

8893 93

99

0

20

40

60

80

100

% w

ho u

se th

e In

tern

et

Less than£12,500

£12,500to £20,000

£20,000to £30,000

£30,000to £40,000

Over£40,000

2005 2007 2009 2011 2013

OxIS 2005 N=2,185; 2007 N=2,350; 2009 N=2,013; 2011 N=2,057; 2013 N=2,657Note: The income scale changed in 2009.

Use by Household Income

14

20

32

25

49

35

9

70

45

33

67

0

20

40

60

80

100

% o

f Int

erne

t use

rs w

ho u

se

2007 2009 2011 2013

Smartphone Tablet Reader Mobile & Multi−device

Mobile Internet Use, 2007 − 2013

The Oxford Internet Surveys

Internet Use, Behaviour and Attitudes in Great Britain 2003-2015

Age, income and education are the main predictors of Internet use and behaviour

Tracking the rise of mobile

Mapping digital inequality across Britain

The myth of the digital native

Health and the Internet

Social media and the (supposed) death of privacy

Using our datasets for research and policy

OxIS is the longest-running academic survey of Internet use in Britain, describing how Internet use has evolved from 2003 to the present day. Run by the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, this biennial survey provides unrivalled data, rigorous analysis and policy-relevant insights into key aspects of life online. This report introduces some of the applications for research and policy.

Researchers: Grant Blank, Victoria Nash, Rebecca Eynon, Darja

Groselj, Ulrike Rauer, Mark Graham, Elizabeth Dubois, Gillian Bolsover.

Age, income and education are the main predictors of Internet use and behaviour

The First Law of the Internet: everything is related to age. On the Internet young people do more of everything

31

80 79

91

40

8492 95

0

20

40

60

80

100

% w

ho u

se th

e In

tern

et

2011 2013 OxIS 2011 N=2,057; 2013 N=2,657Note: Students were excluded.

Use by Educational QualificationsNo qualifications Basic qualifications Further education Higher education

94

6863

27

10094

85

39

0

20

40

60

80

100%

who

use

the

Inte

rnet

14−17 18−24 25−34 35−44 45−54 55−64 65+

2005 2007 2009 2011 2013

OxIS 2005 N=2,185; 2007 N=2,350; 2009 N=2,013; 2011 N=2,057; 2013 N=2,657

Use by Age

29

58

70

83 84

58

8893 93

99

0

20

40

60

80

100

% w

ho u

se th

e In

tern

et

Less than£12,500

£12,500to £20,000

£20,000to £30,000

£30,000to £40,000

Over£40,000

2005 2007 2009 2011 2013

OxIS 2005 N=2,185; 2007 N=2,350; 2009 N=2,013; 2011 N=2,057; 2013 N=2,657Note: The income scale changed in 2009.

Use by Household Income

The Internet has become a fundamental part of our social life, our culture and our economy, and OxIS provides a fresh, evidence-based perspective on how these critical relationships are changing over time. People without Internet access may struggle to participate fully in society—such as interacting with government, or finding a job. But many of the differences in the ways we access, use (and indeed think about) the Internet can be explained by just three factors: age, income, and education. This could result in exclusion of certain sectors of society; ‘digital first’ strategies may present problems for the elderly, the poor, and the uneducated. Over the years, OxIS researchers have worked closely with government departments, NGOs and Ofcom to inform policy aimed at reducing these sources of digital exclusion.

Image: Enokson (Flickr)

Researcher: Grant Blank

Tracking the rise of mobile

Mobile use of the Internet is dominated by entertainment—music, video and reading. Use of mobile is rising rapidly with no end in sight, causing changes in hardware, website design, marketing, and access.

Owning both mobile and fixed devices is an important trend in Internet adoption and use. By studying Internet use across devices we are better able to understand how portable devices contribute to online engagement, and whether a new—mobile—digital divide is emerging. Early results indicate that mobile Internet users are likely to be younger, better educated, and have higher incomes. They are also more likely to go online to communicate, socialize and entertain themselves. These differences have major implications for research on digital inequality, as well as for policy-making in the field of digital inclusion, since the underlying motivations and meanings of mobile Internet adoption and use are profoundly different from those shaping adoption and use of computers.

Researcher: Darja Groselj

The rise of mobile represents one of the biggest changes of the past decade

Mobile Internet use has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2013, 70% of Internet users had a smartphone. Mobile Internet use is likely to make the Internet a more integral part of everyday life and work.

iPhone users at LeWeb by Robert Scoble (Flickr)

Image: Enokson (Flickr)

14

20

32

25

49

35

9

70

45

33

67

0

20

40

60

80

100

% o

f Int

erne

t use

rs w

ho u

se

2007 2009 2011 2013

Smartphone Tablet Reader Mobile & Multi−device

Mobile Internet Use, 2007 − 2013

Percent Internet Use59 - 7071 - 7475 - 7778 - 8384 - 8788 - 89

Edinburgh 76%Glasgow 77%

Newcastle-upon-Tyne 63%

Middlesbrough 61%

Dundee 74%

Aberdeen 76%

Liverpool 75%

Manchester 80%

Sheffield 77%

Nottingham 86%

Leicester 87%

Leeds 78%

York 78%

Bristol 86%Cardiff 75%

Swansea 72%

Birmingham 80%

Southampton 86%

Greater London 86%

Britain has one of the world’s largest Internet economies but digital inequality means some local economies are disadvantaged

Mapping digital inequality across Britain

Small-area estimation techniques open up a whole new area for research and policy-making around local patterns of behaviour. We are expanding our model to include urban–rural differences, the index of multiple deprivation, occupation, and socio-economic status.

The Internet has made an enormous difference in our social life, culture, and economy, but we still don’t know enough about local patterns of Internet access and use across the nation. Combining OxIS data with the census can reveal for the first time the local patterns of digital inequality across Britain.

Census data are available for very small areas, but have no data on Internet use. OxIS, however, is a rich source of information on all kinds of Internet activity, behaviour and attitudes. By combining our detailed understanding of Internet use from OxIS with the basic demographic data of the census we can estimate Internet use across Britain at the local level. The breadth of the census is combined with the depth and predictive power of OxIS.

Britain has one of the world’s largest Internet economies, contributing about eight percent to GDP. Businesses are likely to locate to areas with good digital access, boosting local economies, creating new jobs and increasing income growth.

Internet use is concentrated in the South East, with

London dominating. Bristol, Southampton, and

Nottingham also have high levels of use, as well as

the rest of the south with estimated usage levels

of 78-83%. The entire North East region is in the lowest category of 59-70%

estimated use.

Researchers: Grant Blank, Mark Graham, Claudio Calvino. Supported by the ESRC.

2013 OxIS data. Selected for presentation at UK Universities Week 2014.

Image: lilivanili (Flickr)

The myth of the digital native

Because the Internet has made such an enormous difference to our social life, culture, and economy, it’s important to bring people online, to encourage them all to participate and benefit. But despite the clear benefits of the Internet, there is a marked inequality in its uptake and use (the ‘digital divide’), and little is known about who is and isn’t connected.

More than five percent of 17-19 year olds in Britain describe themselves as ‘ex-Internet users’: a group we found in the OxIS data and explored further through face-to-face interviews. Why have these young people stopped using the Internet given its obvious value? We aimed to determine the extent to which this is due to reasons of digital exclusion—or choice—and to explore the implications of non-use in their daily lives: negotiating job search, government services, housing, and social interactions with their peers.

The widely held (but inaccurate) public assumption that the current generation of youth is ‘born digital’

Researchers: Rebecca Eynon, Anne Geniets. Supported by Nominet Trust.

A significant minority of young people are unable to navigate or connect properly with the online world

Powerful trends are pushing the UK to be increasingly knowledge intensive, and the Internet and good education are both central to this. This is important because education is something that can be influenced by government policy. Speaking to a panel about youth and the Internet with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Grant Blank presented OxIS data showing education to be a major driver of Internet use.

is so powerful that it has informed numerous policies and initiatives that determine young people’s lives. Such strategies may pose a threat for young people with restricted resources who are high users of government services but very limited users of the Internet. As this group is actually willing (if unable) to use the Internet, and see it as a normal and necessary part of life, we believe targeted intervention is possible. Follow-up qualitative research of this kind adds detail to our understanding of Internet use and non-use; it’s important to recognise this nuance in discussion and policy-making around digital inclusion.

Health and the Internet

How does Internet use affect health behaviour, perceptions and outcomes? Combining OxIS with secondary datasets provides novel insights into many issues of interest to policymakers, with small-area mapping techniques allowing initiatives to be targeted to specific areas. We are undertaking spatial microsimulation modelling to create a dataset of everyone in England with their Internet use, attitudes and skills (from OxIS), self-rated health status (from the census) and health service use (from the NHS), allowing insights into the relationship between them: down to the local level.

Combining OxIS and government datasets allows a rich picture to be built across many dimensions. In a time of budget cuts, research on how health outcomes relate to Internet use will be valuable.

Linking OxIS with data from the census and the NHS provides insights into the relationship between Internet use and healthcare outcomes: which can be mapped at the local area level

Researcher: Ulrike Rauer. Supported by the ESRC. The OxIS datasets are a valuable resource for UK

policy-makers, in and around government.

• Grant Blank chairs a Working Group of the Digital Inclusion Delivery Board tasked with recommending a set of measures of digital inclusion for the UK. This will feed into the government’s Digital Inclusion Charter.• The Dept for Work and Pensions used OxIS to estimate the percentage of households eligible for Universal Credit who use/do not use the Internet, and their demographic breakdown. Our consistent sampling methodology allowed them to estimate future trends.• The Scottish Government has used OxIS data on digital participation to support their Digital Strategy. • Dot.rural, a RCUK Digital Economy Hub, is using OxIS data to understand how Internet access influences the quality of life in rural areas. • OxIS 2011 results were presented at 10 Downing Street to a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Digital Communications team, the No.10 Policy and Analytics Unit, and selected heads of e-comms and digital engagement from across Whitehall.

UCL teaching hospital by Jim Linwood (Flickr)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2010 that privacy was no longer a “social norm”. Young people are widely supposed to be sharing their private lives online because they don’t fully understand the implications, but little systematic research has investigated the relation between age and online privacy behaviour. OxIS asks about privacy behaviours, so it brings systematic data to bear on the question, “Are young people really completely unconcerned about their privacy online?” In a word, the answer is No. We actually find a clear inverse relationship—almost all teenage SNS users have checked or changed their privacy settings, dropping to about 30% of SNS users over 65. Young people do indeed care about their privacy—and they act on it. US and Australian datasets show the same pattern, implying a need to rethink this perception.

Young people care more about their online privacy than older users

0

20

40

60

80

100

% w

ho u

se s

ocia

l med

ia

18−24 25−34 35−54 55−64 65+

UK 2013 USA 2013 Australia 2013

UK N = 1,321; USA N = 432; Australian N = 822

Social Media Users who have Changed theirPrivacy Settings by Age (UK, USA, Australia)

Social media and the (supposed) death of privacy

Young people are more, not less, likely to have taken action to protect the privacy of their personal information on social networking sites than older people. The strength of this effect is remarkable: between the oldest and youngest the difference is over 62 percentage points.

Researchers: Grant Blank, Gillian Bolsover, Elizabeth Dubois

Social media provide a valuable source of data for research on personal ties and communication, collective action, privacy, and identity. Above: OxIS data presented at our 2008 social media conference. Use of social media has plateaued since then at about 60% of Internet users.

OxIS 2008

Using our datasets for research and policy

OxIS is a multi-stage national probability sample of 2000 people in Britain, enabling us to project estimates to Britain as a whole. Undertaken every two years since 2003, it surveys users, non-users, and ex-users, covering Internet and ICT access and use, attitudes to technology, and supporting demographic and geographic information.

Although face-to-face surveys are expensive to run, they improve the likelihood of getting high-quality answers to every question, and enable coverage of a large number of items. OxIS data are first checked and analysed by our researchers, and sponsors can use the data as soon as they are clean. Two years later the data are released for use by outside academic and government users; other users may be able to use the data for a fee.

OxIS datasets can be made available to interested parties. Please email: oxis@oii.ox.ac.uk for details.Website: http://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/

Panel discussion at the OxIS 2013 Report launch at Ofcom’s Riverside House. From left: Victoria Nash (OII), Grant Blank (OII), James Thickett (Ofcom), Holly Goodier (BBC), Bill Thompson (broadcaster).

OxIS 2013

OxIS has been supported by: Ofcom, Nominet Trust, dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, Cisco, Talisma, the British Library, ITV, O2, AOL, Wanadoo, BT, Scottish and Southern Energy, and the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE).

Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS)Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford1 St GilesOxford OX1 3JS

Tel: 01865 287210

oxis@oii.ox.ac.ukhttp://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/