Online Canadian teens are significantly more likely to have a social network profile than online Canadian adults, according to a new study from, Ipsos Reid.
Over three-quarters (76%) of online Canadian teens ages 12-17 now have a social network profile up from 50 percent in 2007. The rate of increase is higher than that for the online adult population, which increased from 39 percent to 56 percent over the same time period.
In the study “Online Teens: What’s the Next Generation Doing Now,” author Mark Laver said, “Teenagers are sometimes thought as societal barometers for new trends and embracing new technology.”
“Online teenagers’ use of social networks has expanded rapidly in the past 18 months; however, their parents’ usage hasn’t kept up. Consequently, some parents will have little to no clue about what their children are doing online.”
Mark Laver
Unsurprisingly, many online teens have social network accounts at more than one site. Among Canadian teenagers with social networking profiles, almost all (93%) have a profile on Facebook.
The next most popular social networking sites for teens are Windows Live Space (29%), and MySpace (19%). Facebook is the only site to experience a significant increase in the last 18 months, climbing by 24 percentage points (up from 69%).
“Facebook has clearly broken away from the crowd in terms of being the primary site for social networking,” said Laver. “Businesses wishing to engage consumers through online social networks will need to do some research to understand the dynamics of each site.”
“Clearly, the social networking phenomenon has been a huge success with the younger generation. The rapid uptake in social networking by Canadian teenagers may point toward slight shifts in how teens communicate with each other. The all night telephone call may be replaced through a variety of text, sms and im/chat messages, including those inside of social networks.”
