Britons are secretly surfing the internet for personal purposes during working hours research by a Wifi community has found.

In its survey of 1,500 people, FON found that more than a quarter of Britons were using this time to look for bargains and shop online. A fifth of workers said they looked for holidays and almost as many had a strange obsession with weather forecasts.

Viewing online pornography sites was also a popular past time with a tenth of men and two per cent of women. A further four per cent of men also accessed dating sites.

When it comes to social networking, almost a fifth of 25-34 year olds admited using using sites such as Facebook and Myspace compared to three per cent of 35-44 year olds.

Over half of those used these sites to share gossip about sex and relationships or to tell their friends who they didn’t like at work.