Almost three in 10 youngsters aged 18 to 25 say they are addicted to social media and keep their phones with them at all times, according to new research by the national statistics office CBS.

This is a sharp rise on three years ago, when 19% of young adults said they could not stop constantly checking their phones.

Young adults are also spending an increasing amount of time using social media.  Some 29% say they are busy with social media websites for three to five hours a day and nearly 9% admitting to spending five to 10 hours checking their messages.

Some 34% of youngsters say they spend so much time on sites like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat because they are afraid of missing something.

One in four say they because restless if they cannot read messages and 37% say being away from an internet connection is a major nuisance.