Adults in Northern Ireland are more likely to look at pornography online than those in any other part of the UK.

That is according to new research published by the communications regulator Ofcom.

It said that more than 430,000 adults in Northern Ireland visited "pornographic content services" online in May 2024 - more than one-third of the adult population.

That was higher than the proportion of adults viewing similar content in Wales, Scotland and England.

The figures come from Ofcom's Online Nation report for 2024, which looks into the UK's digital habits.

A Northern Ireland Executive online safety strategy for young people had previously expressed concern over exposure to pornography online.

Overall, according to Ofcom, adults in Northern Ireland spent an average of four hours and 16 minutes a day online, most of it on their smartphones.

Google, referred to by the name of its parent company Alphabet, was the most-used website in Northern Ireland and the most popular search engine.

That was followed by Meta, Amazon and websites operated by Microsoft.

The BBC, though, was the fifth most visited online site in Northern Ireland and the UK as a whole and had the highest daily audience of any news service.

The BBC site reached 86% of adults in Northern Ireland, compared to 83% of adults in both England and Scotland, and 82% of adults in Wales.

The BBC, The Sun and Mail Online featured in the top four news services in all UK nations, but the Belfast Telegraph had the third highest reach of news services in Northern Ireland.

With regard to app use, WhatsApp was the most popular app - used by more than nine in ten adults.

The next most popular apps were Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube and Instagram.

The Candy Crush Saga was still the most popular game app, as it had been in 2022 and 2023.

Twitter - now known as X - did not feature in the top ten apps used by adults, according to Ofcom, but was sixth in the top ten social media sites.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit were more popular.

But overall, according to Ofcom, "YouTube remains the highest-reaching social media service among UK online adults using smartphones, tablets or computers".

More people using AI tools

Ofcom's figures also suggest there is increasing use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

When it comes to which type of smartphone people used, Apple was slightly more popular than Android.

But Apple's iPhones were more popular with women than men in the UK as a whole.

In Northern Ireland, though, users were more likely to use Android phones than Apple's iPhones.

The Ofcom report suggested that high numbers of people over the age of 13 reported seeing "potentially harmful online content or behaviour".

Two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland reported seeing harms like offensive language, scams, unwelcome friend requests, hateful content, trolling or misogynistic content.

Separate research previously carried out in Northern Ireland has suggested that teenage girls are more likely to be asked for nude photos online or be sent pornography or content promoting self-harm than boys.