Ofcom released their latest
research on online VoD services yesterday.
This was based on a a survey "conducted via a face-to-face omnibus among 2,121 adults aged 16+. Respondents were screened to ensure that they viewed at least one of the range of relevant on-demand and online content types. The sample size of on-demand and online users was 1,453."
In addition an "online survey of 500 interviews was carried out among 12-15 year olds."
Those surveyed were asked to comment on all VoD material they'd seen online (both regulated and unregulated) because "Ofcom has a duty to advise Government on the need for protection of consumers and citizens in their consumption of audio-visual services, and in particular the need to protect children. Therefore, Ofcom seeks to understand people’s use of, and concerns towards, notified ODPS [on-demand programme services] in the broader context of all on-demand and online audio-visual services in the UK, and has carried out quantitative consumer research for this purpose."
Stats revealed that are relevant to this board:
- "The proportion of UK adults claiming to have seen something of concern on an online or on-demand service remains stable at just over one in ten (12%)"
(The headline quote used by
advanced-television.com.)
Ofcom adds that, "there are higher levels of concern among the younger age groups. The level of concern among all adults is relatively low." They continue, "a quarter of teens (28%) have been concerned by content they have seen on demand or online. This represents a significant increase since 2014, when the level of concern was 16%." (The 'concern amongst adults' figure for 2015 is not specified exactly as a whole, as far as I can see, but looks around 11% from other figures given.)
- This year's top concerns among adults are given as "violence (50%), welfare of children/young people (32%), bullying/victimising (31%), racism (30%), discrimination (29%), bad language (28%), and pornography (24%).
Concerns regarding violence, bullying and racism have increased significantly since 2014,
while concerns about sexually explicit content have decreased [to 18%]." (The report later comments that Ofcom is sure of this "significant" decrease to a "a 95% confidence level".)
Yes, Pornography and "sexually explicit content" are somewhat confusingly listed separately in the VoD "concerned" rankings. The former's figures are conversely up (22% to 26% amongst parents and 14% to 22% amongst non-parents).
- Amongst parents the overall top rankers are: "violence (54%), the welfare of children/young people (36%) and bullying/victimisation (37%)
Bullying/victimisation is now in the top three concerns, up from sixth position (20%) in 2014. This represents a statistically significant increase and mirrors the increase in concern over bullying seen among teenagers."
Ofcom highlight that "
These concerns largely reflect the same concerns people have regarding broadcast content: bad language (44%), exposure to violent content (41%),
sexually explicit material (41%), and discrimination (23%). However, bullying is a specific online concern that appears to be on the increase." (Although they later specify that
VoD "concerns among parents regarding sexually explicit content have fallen from 33% in 2014 to 19% in 2015." So that would seem outside of their "largely" comment then!)
- "Things of a sexual nature" scored 19% amongst those teens that expressed concern about VoD content they had seen online. "Seeing things that are too old for me" scored 18% from the same group. (These two things concerned this group roughly as much as "Trolling" [19%]. By comparison "Bullying/victimising" was top with 42%.)
Of course the helpuly vague concerns about "welfare of children/young people" have already been selected for quoting to the press by Ofcom's spokesperson. This, as ever, will be their hat to hang any number of things on no doubt.