The Kids Are Online

A new report says that today nearly nine out of ten teenagers in the U.S. have online access. Adults? Only two out of three.

A new report compiled for the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that today 87 percent of youths ages 12 through 17 in the United States have online access, up from about three-quarters in 2000, and that half of online teens use the Internet every day. As seen by the report, teens’ daily lives are permeated by cell phones and the Internet; furthermore, teens’ use of the Internet has broadened significantly compared to four years ago, now regularly encompassing games, news gathering, research, and entertainment.

In comparison, only two out of three adults use the Internet.

The report found that 43 percent of online teens have made purchases over the Internet (representing a 71 percent increase in teen online purchases since 2000), and 31 percent of teens have used the Internet to access health information.

Email, once the Internet’s "killer application" is often seen as a tool for communicating with "adults" such as teachers or parents, or as a means of conveying sizable chunks of information to groups. Instead, teens gravitate toward instant messaging and cell-phone text messaging to stay in touch with friends, family, and acquaintances. The vast majority of all teenagers—84 percent—have at least one personal media device such as a computer, PDA, or cell phones, and eight in ten teens play games online. Forty-five percent of teens have cell phones, and one third have used a cell phone to send a text message.

The report also finds that the 13 percent of teenagers who are not online are disproportionately likely to be African-American and/or with from lower-income backgrounds and limited access to technology.