Majority Of Teens, Young Adults Have Broadband Access

Seven out of 10 teenagers and young adults are surfing the web with broadband connections, which have become a driving force behind the increasing amount of time they spend online, a media company said Friday.

A survey of 15 year olds to 22 year olds found 70 percent using high-speed Internet connections in the fourth quarter of 2004, an 11 percent increase over the third quarter, according to Bolt Inc., a New York media company that provides entertainment, chat, dating and other online services to teens and young adults.

Of those young people with broadband connections, 50 percent used a cable modem, 44 percent digital subscriber lines and 6 percent T1/T3 lines.

Half of the young people in the age group surveyed spend more than 15 hours a week online, primarily due to the speedy connections that have improved the experience on the Internet, according to Bolt.

"Kids who are online aren't just surfing the web," Kevin Wicks, director of entertainment for Bolt, said in a statement. "They're blogging, uploading photos and video, and downloading and sharing music. Faster connections mean a higher volume and broader range of activity on the web."Bolt's photo service, for example, reported a 27 percent increase in uploads per user between the third and fourth quarters. In addition, gaming sites are reporting the second highest volume of activity among all genres, and blogging saw a 39 percent increase in the fourth quarter from the third, according to the Bolt Quarterly Tracking Study. One out of 4 teens use blogs today.

In addition, 55 percent of young people were watching less TV than the same period last year, because they were spending more time online, Bolt said.