The Children's Passive Online Measurement study explores the websites and apps visited by UK children aged 8-14 and how long was spent on the services visited.
Ofcom is the regulator for online safety in the UK. Our role is to make sure online services, like websites and apps, meet their duties to protect their users under the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’). To support this work, it is essential that we have a robust evidence base on people’s – including children’s - online experiences, which services they are using, and for how long. It is for this reason that Ofcom has carried out the Children’s Passive Online Measurement study.
The study measures a UK representative sample of online children aged 8-14s’ use of websites and apps across smartphones, tablets and computers. To collect this data the recruited children had passive monitoring software installed on the devices they used with the data being reported back anonymously. The children’s internet use was measured over a period of 28 consecutive days for each panellist.
Passive measurement of children’s online use is an important tool in our broader programme of children’s research which informs our work across online safety, broadcasting and media literacy. Seeing children’s real online journeys brings us closer to understanding the challenges they face online and how to improve their lives online.
Download the Children's Passive Online Measurement report
Interactive report:
2025
This 2025 report was our first Children’s Passive Online Measurement report for a nationally representative sample. As is standard in research, changes and improvements to the fieldwork and data processing are implemented over time, especially with such a novel approach, and we have made changes since our first report. Based on the learnings from this initial study we have refined the methodology. This means that like-for-like comparison with Children’s Passive Online Measurement reports going forward is not possible.