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Britons flock to get connected Monday, January 11, 1999 Published at 14:44 GMT: The Internet is becoming a truly mass medium in Britain widely used by the public and no longer the specialist preserve of academics, scientists and "net nerds", according to a Guardian/ICM opinion poll. The survey of more than 1,000 randomly selected people in England, Scotland and Wales shows that nearly half the population will have access to the Internet by the year 2000. This indicates a rate of expansion that is more than twice that of last year's of 1% a month, reports the Guardian. It shows the Internet has caught on faster than any other kind of new technology, like video recorders and CDs. More and more adults said they can use the Net at work or at home. About one third of the nation - 29% - are already connected and the figure is expected to rise to 43% by the millennium. Divided by region, the survey showed greater access to the Internet in the South (36%) than the North (23%) and Midlands (25%). But when it comes to Internet use at home, Britain - which claims 14% - still lags behind countries like the US (27%) and Sweden (21%) where phone links are free. Of the 1,209 people questioned, 79% of net users said they were excited by the amount of information available but were slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information available to them. Opinion was split on the reliability of Web content, and most were worried about children having access to pornography. The worldwide web is still mainly a toy and tool for the boys in their 20s and 30s. About 25% of men questioned used it at work compared with 18% of working women. At home 18% of men said they had access at home compared with just 11% of women. The ICM survey was carried out by telephone between 30 December and 3 January and the results were weighted to the profile of all adults. BBC News Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/uk/newsid_252000/252830.stm janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada <http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/index.htm> [log in to unmask]