Online Nation 2021 report Published 9 June 2021 Welsh version available: Ein Gwlad Ar-lein - Trosolwg Cymraeg Contents Section Overview ............................................................................................................................ 3 What we have found – in brief ........................................................................................................... 3 1. The online consumer ...................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 9 Internet take-up and use .................................................................................................................. 11 Device take-up and use ..................................................................................................................... 16 Use of internet services .................................................................................................................... 19 Online harms and attitudes to regulation ........................................................................................ 40 2. Children ........................................................................................................................ 49 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 49 Children’s internet take-up and use ................................................................................................. 50 Device take-up and use ..................................................................................................................... 52 Use of internet services .................................................................................................................... 54 Market context and business models ............................................................................................... 74 Children’s experience of online harms, and action taken ................................................................ 78 3. Social video .................................................................................................................. 85 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 85 Take-up and use ................................................................................................................................ 87 User engagement and key genres .................................................................................................... 94 Market context and business models ............................................................................................. 103 Content delivery .............................................................................................................................. 105 Content creators ............................................................................................................................. 109 User experiences of using social video ........................................................................................... 113 4. The online industry ..................................................................................................... 120 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 120 Market overview ............................................................................................................................. 121 GAFAM ............................................................................................................................................ 123 Overview of key sectors .................................................................................................................. 127 5. News and misinformation ........................................................................................... 150 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 150 News consumption ......................................................................................................................... 150 False or misleading information ..................................................................................................... 157 The coronavirus pandemic .............................................................................................................. 162 Actions taken to tackle false information online ............................................................................ 171 Annex A1. Covid-19 ................................................................................................................... 176 A2. Methodology ............................................................................................................ 177 2 Overview What we have found – in brief People used online services more than ever as we became more dependent on them during the pandemic With the UK in some form of lockdown for most of 2020, we were more dependent than ever on online services for entertainment, shopping, keeping in touch, getting information, home working and home schooling. By the end of the year, about 94% of UK homes had internet access, up from about 89% in 2019. And we spent more time online: an average of 3 hours 37 minutes a day on smartphones, tablets and computers (nine minutes more than in 2019) as well as an average of 1 hour 21 minutes a day watching online services such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer on television sets (24 minutes more than in 2019). In September 2020, UK internet users spent nearly four times as much time on smartphones (an average of 2 hours 19 minutes a day) than they did on computers (37 minutes). More people have taken part in online gaming, video-calling and online health services during the pandemic With people at home for much of the year, online gaming saw a big increase in 2020. Nearly two- thirds (62%) of adults, and 92% of 16- to 24-year-olds, said they played games on an electronic device, and over half of all gamers agreed that gaming helped them get through lockdown. Games consoles and computers are widely used by young adults in particular, but smartphones are the most commonly used device across all age groups, and were used for gaming by 39% of all UK adults. The multiplayer social deduction game Among Us was a global phenomenon on smartphones, with over 11 million downloads in the UK in the last four months of 2020. Video calling became an important way for people to keep in touch during the pandemic. Zoom had extraordinary growth: from a few hundred thousand users in the first two months of 2020 to more than 13 million in April and May. It has since experienced some decline (down to 10.4 million users in March 2021), while platforms used primarily for work and education, notably Microsoft Teams, have shown a sustained increase in use (13.7 million users in March 2021, up by 5.3 million year on year). Online services were also a crucial way for people to find out information about the pandemic, and for governments to try to track and control the spread of the virus. The NHS online service was used by 22.5 million UK adults in March 2020 as the country entered lockdown. Adult users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales peaked in October 2020 with 12.6 million users (27% of the population in England and Wales); in the same month the Protect Scotland app reached 23% of adults in Scotland and the StopCOVID NI app reached 3% of adults in Northern Ireland. Fifty years since the first email was sent, 88% of UK online adults use an email service 3 Although messaging apps have become widespread, email is still widely used and is essential for many forms of online registration, including shopping sites. Google Gmail was the most-used email service among adults in 2020, used by 61% of the UK online adult population. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, is the most-used messaging service, with 75% of online over-15s saying they used it during the spring 2020 lockdown, ahead of Facebook Messenger (58%). Facebook’s Instagram Direct Message was used by 24% of UK online adults. Of online over-15s, 83% (and 97% of 15-24s) said they used at least one Facebook-owned service at least monthly. But the pandemic has created a bigger digital divide While most of us benefited from online services, lockdown had a greater effect on people who are digitally excluded. Six per cent of households don’t have home internet access, and 14% of adults access the internet only infrequently. Older people are less likely to have home internet access (18% of over-64s do not have access), but so too are those in lower socio-economic households (11%). People who rely on a mobile phone for internet access might struggle to work or learn from home or complete online forms – this represents 10% of all adults, and 18% of adults in lower socio-economic households. Even among those who do have access to the internet, 5% say they are not confident in using it, again with higher proportions among over-64s (9%) and those in lower socio-economic households (10%). While the internet was a vital lifeline in 2020, over half of children had a negative experience online Virtually all children had some