A study regarding the online behaviors of American teenagers uncovered some surprising findings.
The study, titled “Keeping Up with Generation App: NCSA Parent/Teen Online Safety Survey,” was conducted by non-profit public-private partnership The National Cyber Security Alliance. Co-sponsored by Microsoft, the study was conducted to provide a clearer understanding of the online behaviors of teens and is part of the NCSA’s efforts to raise awareness regarding online safety.
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The study found that Snapchat and Instagram are the most popular social media sites used by this demographic in the U.S. today, cited by 66 percent and 65 percent of online teens surveyed, respectively, now surpassing the popularity of Facebook. That site’s use was cited by only 61 percent of teens surveyed.
Perhaps what’s most surprising is the notion that, by far, video-sharing website YouTube was ranked by U.S. teens as the most popular site (cited by 91 percent of users) followed by Google's email service Gmail (75 percent). These sites were cited as more popular among teens than any social media site in the survey, beating Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook ranked as the fifth most popular site, above Kik Messenger (52 percent), Skype (43 percent), Twitter (40 percent), Vine (31 percent) and Tumblr (24 percent).
Not surprisingly, the survey also found that an overwhelming number of online teens (86 percent) interact with the online world through smartphones, and 62 percent said they spend at least five hours a day using Internet-connected devices. Most also admitted engaging in some online activities that their parents don’t know about, and more than half — 60 percent — said they’ve created online accounts their parents aren’t unaware of.
NCSA surveyed more than 800 online teens in the U.S. between the ages 13 to 17 in June and the survey has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage. Download the study here.
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