LONDON, March 29 (UPI) -- Fifty percent of British adults have concerns or fears about the Internet, down from 70 percent in 2005, a survey found.
Overall usage of the Internet grew rapidly during the same period -- from an average of less than 10 hours per week to more than 15 hours -- the survey by the United Kingdom's communications regulatory body Ofcom found.
Concerns about offensive content online fell faster than those in any other category, from 45 per cent of adults in 2009 to 33 per cent in 2011. The percentage of adults with worries about security and fraud remained relatively stable at around 20 per cent, and the level of concern about privacy online fell from 13 per cent to 8 per cent.
The overall decrease in concern online was natural, Eleanor Barlow, a managing consultant specializing in cyber psychology, said.
"As people spend more time online without negative consequences their concerns will naturally fall away," she told The Daily Telegraph. "Not only is the technology we're using itself getting better, but we're getting better at navigating it."
In the study, based on interviews with 1,823 adults, Britons said of all media technologies, they would miss television the most, an attitude that could change as the Web and broadcasting grow ever closer together because of content streaming, researchers said.
