Pew Internet and Life said in a recent report that 57 percent of teens now create Internet content, whether it is a blog, a web page, or simply sharing offline content online.
The 12-17 age group doing online content amounts to around 12 million people, Pew stated in its report on Teen Content Creators and Consumers.
Teens are more likely to blog than adults, with 19 percent of teens creating blogs and 38 percent reading them. Though followers of the blogosphere will find this hard to believe, only 7 percent of adults told Pew in a previous study they create blogs, with 27 percent of adults online reading those creations.
In the teen demographic, girls 15-17 blog the most. 25 percent of the girls in that group blog, compared to 15 percent of boys the same age. As a whole, Pew noted the teen group as being tech savvy and heavier users of the Internet than other groups.
Yahoo may want to take note of the teen attitude on music downloads, in the wake of its decision to increase pricing for the Music Unlimited service. Teens echo the warning of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who predicts price increases for music will just drive more people back to piracy; teens don’t see a real problem with downloading, the report said:
“Teens who get music files online believe it’s unrealistic to expect people to self-regulate and avoid free downloading and file-sharing altogether. Out of the 622 teens in our survey who say they have tried music downloading, 75% agree with the statement that, “Music downloading and file-sharing is so easy to do, it’s unrealistic to expect people not to do it.” Just 23% disagreed with this statement.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
