This article is from page 9 of the 2007-07-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
A NEW survey by BT Ireland sug- gests that many Clare men and wom- en are living secret online lives visit- ing websites, but hiding it from their family and partners.
The survey of browsing habits claims that 10 per cent of Irish men and 7 per cent of Irish women hide the websites which they visit from their loved ones.
The survey revealed that seven per
cent of men hid the fact that they were viewing pornographic material online from their partners while only two per cent of women admitted to secretly visited adult websites. How- ever, two per cent of women admit- ted to buying clothes and other goods online without the knowledge of their partners. The survey was carried out
by BT Ireland during May. ‘This research has thrown up some really interesting findings,” said
Emer Kennedy, spokesperson for BT
Ireland. “While men and women are spending more and more time online and seem to share a lot of the same interests, they are also very different in terms of the amount of time spent on the internet, the sites they use and the things they buy.
“While the internet has clearly im- proved the quality of life of all those who use it regularly, it is interesting to see males and females developing different habits, many of which will be familiar to the growing number of
regular internet users in Ireland.” Almost 30 per cent of females ad- mitted to using networking sites such as Bebo and Myspace, twice the percentage of males using similar websites. Also 17 per cent of males and 13 per cent of females claimed to be secretly ashamed of things they had done on the internet with online gambling being one of the main rea- sons. According to the survey more than 80 per cent of Irish adults use the internet at least twice a week. It
also claims that 56 per cent of people use the internet every day, with a fur- ther 30 per cent of males and 26 per cent females using the internet every second day or twice weekly.
The research was carried out among a sample of 200 men and women over the age of 18. More than 44 per cent of those surveyed were between 18 and 24 years, 22 per cent were aged between 25 and 34 years, 18 per cent between 35 and 44 and the remainder were 45 years old and over.