Today, February 12, is Safer Internet Day in many countries throughout Europe. In connection with that, Eurostat, an office of the European Communities, has released stats on Internet activities.

Results from surveys of households and individuals in the European Union show that:

• One person in eight avoids e-shopping because of security concerns.
• In 2007, nearly a quarter of Internet users had a virus that resulted in a loss of time or information. Virus attacks were most frequent in Lithuania (41% of users), Slovenia (35%) and Malta (34%) and least common in the Czech Republic (7%), Estonia (15%) and Sweden (16%).
• Internet users (individuals who used the Internet in the last three months) increased from 52% in 2006 to 57% in 2007. During the same time period, the proportion of Internet users who used online banking grew from 38% to 44%.

Safer Internet Day, organized by Insafe (a European Internet safety network co-funded by the European Commission), is part of a worldwide campaign to promote a safer Internet for all users. Read the news release to see more stats.