Two thirds of Britons believe social networking sites should be banned in the workplace

A new survey of 1,000 people in the UK from leading online survey provider Ciao Surveys has revealed that 65.9% of people in Britain think that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace should be banned from the workplace. The proportion of respondents wanting such a ban rises with age from 42.1% of 18-24 year olds steadily up to 78.7% of those 55 and older.

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The survey conducted online discovered that most people in Britain do use social networking sites, with 56.3% being a member of at least one. Single people are most likely to use these sites at 74.1%, compared to 67.3% of those living with a partner, 46.7% of married people and only 44.8% of divorcees. Additionally, singles are more likely to be a member of multiple social networking sites with 49.6% being members of more than one site compared to 41.1% of people living with a partner, 21.9% of married people and 24.1% of divorced respondents.

When looking at age, more than 90% of 18-24 year old respondents use social networking sites. While usage figures do decrease with age, intriguingly 39.6% of respondents over 55 engage in some form of online social networking.

Additionally, a quarter of respondents believe that social networking sites are a ëpassing fadí. Interestingly though, those respondents 55 and older were the least likely to think this at 21%, compared to 26.4% of 18-24 year olds and 30.2% of 25-34 year olds.

Of those people who use social networking sites, 51.5% use them more often than they did a year ago, and only 20.6% use them less often. Additionally, 16.1% of those who use these sites said they used them more often in March than they did in February, but 17.7% said they used them less often in March than February implying a slight decrease in users.

24% of social networking site users say they expect to use these sites more often over the course of the next 12 months, with 16.8% expecting to use them less often and the remainder expecting to use them the same amount as they do currently.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site according to the survey, with 36.9% of respondents claiming to be a member of the site. Friends Reunited comes in second with 27.5% and MySpace third with 19.4%. Facebook is the most popular site for all age groups aside from 55 and older, who are more likely to use Friends Reunited than any other site.

With respect to geographic breakdown, respondents in Scotland use social networking sites more often than those in any other part of the nation with 61.5% of the population being a member of at least one site. People in Wales and the Southwest are least likely to be a member of a social networking site, with 47.2% of respondents stating they are not a member of any of these sites.

It also seems that employers should not be overly concerned about their employees use of social networking sites at work. Despite only 18.7% of respondents stating that the sites are blocked in their workplace, less than 10% actually use these sites at work. Related to this, only 24.8% of respondents believe that social networking sites can be useful for business networking. This fits with the seemingly low number of users on business networking sites like LinkedIn at only 1.9% of respondents.

Finally, younger people are not only more likely to be a member of a social networking site, but they also log into the sites more often. 43.8% of 18-24 year old respondents use these sites at least once per day, compared to 25.7% of 25-34 year olds, 14.4% of 35-44 year olds, 5.3% of 45-54 year olds and 6.1% of over 55ís.

This nationally representative online survey of 1,000 people in the UK was conducted by Ciao Surveys during March 2008. Full results of the survey are available by contacting Dan Brown or Caroline Baylon on 44 (0)207 928 7676 or dbrown@mulberrymc.com / cbaylon@mulberrymc.com .

The margin of error for a randomly drawn sample this size is approximately /-3.1%.