Study Reveals the Industries with the Longest T&Cs

• Dating websites’ terms of service take the longest to read at an average of 58 minutes – if read daily that’s nearly 15 days per year!
• In second place are fashion websites averaging 39 minutes (nearly ten days per year) to read TOS
• Social networking (37 minutes – nine days per year) and job sites (34 minutes – eight days per year) rank third and fourth respectively
• Both the USA’s and UK’s population have an average reading age of nine – a stark comparison to the average reading age of 12-14 years old on the websites analysed
• Children’s education websites score an average reading age of 17-18 years old!

It is imperative we safeguard and educate ourselves on the online platforms we use daily. A website’s terms of use (TOU) agreement, also known as terms of service (TOS) and t******************* (T&C), is one way of protecting all parties and includes information on the site’s cookies, user accounts, and acceptance of terms. But how long would it take to read every website’s TOS?

Interested in analysing which popular websites’ t******************* take the longest to read, as well as investigating their reading ages, Reboot Digital PR Agency delved into different online sectors used on a daily basis. The results are as follows…

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Dating

Dating websites’ terms of service take the longest to read, with an average reading time of 58 minutes (7,569 words) – that’s 354 hours per year! Grindr app takes first place with the longest reading time of 1 hour and 51 minutes – nearly 3 times longer than Badoo with 37 minutes.

Regarding the terms of service’s reading age, 18-19 years (grade 13) was the average. Although most dating apps’ minimum joining age is equivalent to the terms of services reading age, given the population’s average reading age of below eleven, dating website’s reading levels are nearly twice more complex.

Website	Reading Age (Years)	Grade level	Total words	Minutes	Duration
Grindr	18-19	13	14,462	111.2	1 hr 51 minutes
Bumble	19-20	14	8,242	63.4	1 hr 3 minutes
OkCupid	19-20	14	7,759	59.7	1 hr
Her	18-19	13	6,733	51.8	52 minutes
eHarmony	16-17	11	6,693	51.5	52 minutes
Match	18-19	13	6,368	49	49 minutes
Tinder	18-19	13	5,473	42.1	42 minutes
Badoo	18-19	13	4,818	37.1	37 minutes
Average	18-19	13	7,569	58.2	58 minutes

 

Fashion

Website	Reading Age (Years)	Grade level	Total words	Minutes	Time to read
Zara	17-18	12	8,223	63.3	1 hr 3 minutes
Forever21	19-20	14	6,979	53.7	54 minutes
Depop	15-16	10	6,197	47.7	48 minutes
Boohoo	16-17	11	6,029	46.4	46 minutes
ASOS	14-15	9	3,875	29.8	30 minutes
Pretty Little Thing	19-20	14	3,700	28.5	29 minutes
H&M	15-16	10	2,890	22.2	22 minutes
Fashion Nova	22-23	17	2,397	18.4	18 minutes
Average	17-18	12	5,036	38.8	39 minutes

 

In second place is the fashion sector with an average reading time of 39 minutes – 5,036 words. With the online fashion industry expected to grow to $1003.5 billion by 2025, it is clear consumers spend an abundant amount of time shopping online. Therefore, should a person read a fashion website’s TOS every day, it would take up to 236 hours of their time (nearly ten days per year)!

Fashion is an interest for all ages given the vast technological accessibility, but with an average reading age of 17-18 years old, this is not reflected.

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Social Networking

Website	Reading Age (Years)	Grade level	Total words	Minutes	Time to read
TikTok	20-21	15	7,605	58.5	59 minutes
Twitch	21-22	16	6,631	51	51 minutes
Twitter	18-19	13	5,470	42.1	42 minutes
Snapchat	16-17	11	4,434	34.1	34 minutes
LinkedIn	17-18	12	4,094	31.5	32 minutes
Facebook	18-19	13	3,485	26.8	27 minutes
Instagram	18-19	13	3,340	25.7	26 minutes
Pinterest	17-18	12	2,974	22.9	23 minutes
Average	18-19	13	4,754	36.6	37 minutes

 

Social media ranks third as it would take the average reader 37 minutes (4,754 words) to read the TOU – the equivalent of nine days per year. As the most downloaded app of 2020, TikTok has the longest t*******************, standing at 7,605 words (59 minutes).

Considering the app’s reading age of 20-21 and a plethora of users in the Gen Z category, TikTok and other social media platforms illustrate a real disconnection.

Children’s education

With remote learning on the increase since lockdown, children’s education websites enable further schooling. Children’s education places fifth with a reasonable reading time of 20 minutes (2,558).

However, the average reading age for the industry is 17-18 years. The two government-endorsed websites, BBC Bitesize (13-14 reading age) and Tate Kids (14-15 reading age) are the only sites promoting child-friendly reading.

Website	Reading Age (Years)	Grade level	Total words	Minutes	Time to read
The School Run	18-19	13	5,012	38.6	39 minutes
BBC Bitesize (government endorsed)	13-14	8	3,964	30.5	31 minutes
Blockly Games	20-21	15	3,903	30	30 minutes
National Geographic Kids	19-20	14	2,877	22.1	22 minutes
TED-Ed	17-18	12	2,764	21.3	21 minutes
Oxford Owl eBook Library	19-20	14	1,042	8	8 minutes
Tate Kids (government endorsed)	14-15	9	524	4	4 minutes
Topmarks	17-18	12	377	2.9	3 minutes
Average	17-18	12	2,558	20	20 minutes

 

Methodology:

1. Firstly, Rebootonline.com decided to investigate different industries we utilise in our daily lives and researched popular websites within them.
2. They then looked at each website’s terms of service (including similar variations such as terms & conditions and terms of use) and copied the words into WordsToTime.com. This calculated how long it would take the average reader to study the terms of services.
3. Averages (minutes) of each industry were inserted into UnitConverter.io to analyse and rank which sector’s terms of services take the longest to read.
4. Subsequently, to determine the reading age group and grade level of each website’s terms of service, Reboot used WebFX.com’s readability test tool. Once the grade levels had been averaged, the reading age group of each industry was totalled.
5. Reading ages and grade levels were measured by the Flesch Kincaid test.

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