They are also happier to provide their personal information online than users anywhere else in the UK, at only 49% of adults (compared to 59% in the UK) that believe online purchases puts privacy at risk. In Scotland 25% of adults say they access the internet via a mobile or smartphone. 

In a 'media literacy' survey by Ofcom - some 31% of UK adults believe content on the internet to be reliable and accurate, compared to TV (52%) and radio (50%).

But more people say they trust news websites (58% of internet users) than news output from TV (54% of TV viewers)  the largest percentage  trusting news on the radio (66% of radio listeners).

Of parents surveyed in Scotland, 84% said that they trusted their children to use the internet safely, and 71% think that benefits of the internet for their children outweigh the risks.

Says Vicki Nash (right) Ofcom director Scotland, “This research reinforces the fact that digital media and communications services are increasingly becoming an essential part of everyday life in Scotland.”

Says the report: "A majority of adults in Scotland using each medium say that they tend to trust the news output from TV and from news websites, with both measures similar to those found for all UK users.

Compared to all UK adults, adults in Scotland are more likely to judge the information found on TV and on the radio to be reliable and accurate and more likely to say they don’t know whether the information found on the internet is reliable and accurate.

"The proportion of users in Scotland mentioning any concern has decreased since 2007 for each of television, the internet and mobile phones. As with the UK as a whole, around six in ten internet users in Scotland have concerns about what is on the internet (58% vs. 61%) and around 1:10 listeners has concerns about what is on radio (8% vs. 11%).

For the other key media, users in Scotland are less likely than users in the UK overall to have concerns: namely television (31% vs. 39 %) and mobile phones (13% vs. 26%). As with all UK internet users, concern about what is on the internet relates to offensive or illegal content.

"As in 2007, when asked about their preferred way of learning about digital technology, around half of adults in Scotland and in the UK overall nominate learning from friends or family (both 48%) or reading the manual/ instructions (40% vs. 45%).

Compared to UK adults overall, adults in Scotland are more likely to prefer to learn through trial and error (51% vs. 42%). Few adults in the UK as a whole prefer to go to a class to learn about digital technology, and this is even less likely among adults in Scotland (4% vs. 9%)."