Teens and Technology - Pew Internet & American Life Project

Part 6. Information-Seeking and Leisure Activities
purchases in our first survey, while 43% now report online shopping. This compares to
67% of adult internet users who say they have purchased products online. 25
Older teens, who may be more likely than younger teens to have credit cards, are better
positioned to be online consumers. 26 About half of online teens aged 15-17 (52%) have
purchased something online compared to a third (33%) of those aged 12-14. In 2000, just
36% of 15- to 17-year-olds and 26% of 12- to 14-year-olds had made online purchases.
Girls vs. Boys
The percentages of online teens who do the following activities, by gender:
Online Girls
N=496
Online Boys
N=475
What online girls are more likely to do:
Send or read email 93% 84%
Go to websites about movies, TV shows,
music groups, or sports stars
88% 81%
Get info about a school you might attend 61% 53%
Send or receive text messages with a cell
phone
45% 33%
Look for health, dieting or fitness info 37% 26%
Look for info on a health topic that’s hard to
talk about
27% 18%
What online boys are more likely to do:
Play online games 76% 86%
What online girls and boys do at about the same level:
Send or receive instant messages 77% 74%
Get news or info about current events 77% 75%
Look for news or info about politics and the
presidential campaign
57% 53%
Buy things, such as books, clothing, or
music
42% 45%
Look for religious or spiritual info 29% 24%
Look for info about a job 28% 32%
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Teens and Parents Survey, Oct.-Nov. 2004.
Margin of error is ±5% for online girls and ±5% for online boys.
On the whole, online girls
and boys are equally as
likely to have made a
purchase on the internet.
Yet, most of the growth
that we have observed in
recent years has stemmed
from the increased
shopping activity of
online girls aged 15-17;
34% of online girls in this
age group had bought
something online in 2000,
compared to 51% who
reported this in 2004.
Conversely, online boys
aged 12-14 have exhibited
the least growth; 29% of
this age group had tried
online shopping in 2000
while 34% reported this in
our most recent survey.
Our research on adults has
repeatedly found that
having high-speed access at home translates into a greater likelihood that one will make
purchases online. Our latest data reveal a similar trend among teens; 52% of teens with
broadband connections at home make purchases online compared to 39% of those with
dial-up.
25 Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey, November 2004.
26 The 2005 JA Interprise Poll on Teens and Personal Finance found that credit card ownership among teens
increased with age. However, this poll was not a representative sample of teens in the U.S. A discussion of the
poll’s findings is available here: http://www.ja.org/files/polls/personal_finance_2005.pdf
Teens and Technology - 37 - Pew Internet & American Life Project