The ability to find information online is crippling Britons’ memories, with 71% not being able to recall even their children’s phone numbers without having to check a device.

A survey conducted on consumers aged 16 and older by Kaspersky found that 87% can’t even recall phone number of their children’s schools, 57% can’t recall the number of their place of work, while 49% could not recall their partner’s number.

Kaspersky Lab Principal Security Researcher David Emm said: "Connected devices enrich our lives but they have also given rise to Digital Amnesia.

"We need to understand the long term implications of this for how we remember and how we protect those memories.

"Further, an overwhelming 86% of those surveyed say that in our increasingly hyper-connected world people simply have too many numbers, addresses, handles etc. for them to remember even if they wanted to.

"We discovered that the loss or compromise of this precious information would not just be an inconvenience, it would leave many people deeply distressed."

Kaspersky Lab prepared the report based on a survey on 6,000 consumers aged 16 and older in six European countries.

Customers aged between 16 to 24 claimed that they have handed over the responsibility of remembering things to their smartphones.

Termed as ‘Digital Amnesia’ by Kaspersky Lab, the study found out that it affects both men and women equally across all age groups.

Nearly 40% of 16 to 24 year-olds claimed that they would be devastated if they lost the data on digital devices especially smartphones, similar claims were made by 44% of female customers.

One in four women and 38% of younger respondents said that they will panic in case of data loss or breach, as the devices are the only place they store images and contact information.

The results indicated that a growing dependency on smart devices is linked with the profound emotional impact of losing those memories that are stored in the device.

However, consumers are still failing to protect their device, as only 27% of the users install extra IT security on their smartphone.