Most US teens access Internet with mobile device, survey shows

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Most American teenagers use their phones to access the Internet, with one-fourth of them going online mostly on their mobile device.

Some 78 per cent of US teens have a cell phone, and 47 per cent of those own smartphones, according to the survey by the Pew Internet Project with Harvard's Berkman Centre for Internet & Society. It found 74 per cent of teens have mobile Internet access, and one in four are "cell-mostly" Internet users, more than the 15 per cent of the adult population in this category who go online without a desktop or laptop computer.

Fully 95 per cent of teens are online, a percentage that has been consistent since 2006, the researchers found. But the patterns of Internet use have changed as more users go mobile.

"In many ways, teens represent the leading edge of mobile connectivity, and the patterns of their technology use often signal future changes in the adult population," the researchers wrote.