87% of Teens Used Internet in 2004

Posted on July 27, 2005

87% of all teenagers used the Internet in 2004 according to a new Teens and Technology report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. This information probably comes as no surprise to any parent of a teen or to anyone who has been following the teen blogging trend.

A large percentage of bloggers are teens and young adults -- a study from May, 2005 found that 19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have created blogs, compared to just 5% of those 50 and older. And many teenagers have a blog without their parents knowledge.

Teens typically use blog tools that also provide social networking services and allow photographs to be posted like MySpace.com -- which was recently acquired by News Corporation. Teens also like online journal services like Xanga.com and LiveJournal.com. In May, 2005 MSNBC.com reported that 400,000 of LiveJournal.com's 7 million users are under 16. A recent article warning that teens were revealing too much information about themselves on Xanga.com said that 91 percent of Xanga.com's 40 million users are 13-29 years old.

ClickZ.com reports on the new Pew study and describes some other uses of the web and technology by teens besides blogging.

Teens now use a broader array of online content and services. E-mail is still the number one activity at 89 percent, though it slipped marginally from the 92 percent reported in 2000. Visits to entertainment Web sites (TV, music, sport and movies) were noted by 84 percent of teens (up from 83 percent in 2000). The likelihood of teens going online to play games jumped to 81 percent, up from only 66 percent in 2000. Checking online news (76 percent), purchasing online (43 percent) and getting health information (31 percent) were also up.

In comparison with adults, teen play more online games, IM more, and have a higher propensity to go online to get news on current events.