Nine million UK homes now online

Nine million households are now connected to the Internet, according to a new report from Internet research company NetValue. The figure represents more than a third of all households.

The home is becoming the most popular place for Britons to log onto the Internet. In the last six months, 1.4 million households went online while more than a quarter of all online households connected in the last year.

"Employers are cracking down on employees accessing the Internet from work, with office filtering software restricting users from accessing certain areas of the Web," said Jannie Cahill, marketing manager for NetValue.

In March, 76.6 percent of all UK Internet use was conducted from the home or work, while 44.7 percent of surfers accessed the Net just from home. "As PC penetration grows in the UK, the home will increasingly become the common place to get Internet access," said Cahill.

The home Internet population exceeded the 12 million mark for the first time in March, with an average of 1.41 active users per household.

The NetValue report also found that Britons are connecting to the Internet more often than ever. In March, users logged on for an average of 10.5 days, for a total of 24 sessions. "It's an issue of confidence -- users now know the sites that they want to go to, and are more confident about the security aspects," said Cahill.

The number of women online is also continuing to grow, with almost five million women using the Internet in March.

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