Part 2. Teens as Content Consumers
Teen Content Creators and Consumers - 16 - Pew Internet & American Life Project
Again, older boys, ages 15-17, who have broadband connections at home lead as the
power consumers in this category. A full 45% of them report video downloading,
compared with just 28% of older girls with high-speed connections.
In general, boys of all ages are more likely than girls to get video files; 38% of online
boys and 24% of online girls say they are video downloaders. Likewise, older teens of
both genders surpass younger teens in video downloading; 35% of those ages 15-17 get
video files online, while just 26% of 12-14 year-olds do this.
The majority of teens who download video, 61%, also say that they share files (such as
music, video, picture files, or computer games) from their computer with others online.
Among music downloading teens, 52% report some type of file-sharing. Overall, 37% of
online teens report sharing files with others online, compared with 24% of online adults.
Teens who have a high-speed connection at home share files in greater numbers than
teens who use a dial-up connection; 40% of broadband teens share files, while 30% of
dial-up teens do so. More boys share files than girls (42% vs. 33%), and older teens have
a head start on file-sharing relative to their younger teen counterparts (42% vs. 32%).
Similar to music downloaders, bloggers are somewhat more likely than non-bloggers to
say that they care whether or not the music they download is copyrighted. Perhaps in
keeping with their status as creators of their own content, more than half (52%) of
bloggers say they do care about copyright, while 37% of non-bloggers report concern
over the copyright status of the music files they download.
Bloggers generally have similar attitudes as non-bloggers toward free music downloading
and file-sharing. Most feel that downloading is so easy to do that it is unreasonable to
expect people not to do it. However, like most teen internet users, about half of bloggers
think that it is never really okay to download or share files without paying for them or
getting permission. Surprisingly, bloggers are slightly less likely to say that downloading
is okay as long as people are still buying music and movies; just 59% of bloggers agree
with this conditional statement compared with 68% of non-bloggers.
When it comes to downloading music, bloggers are just as likely as non-bloggers to say
they currently download music files (57% vs. 50%, a gap which is not statistically
significant in this data set), and are somewhat more likely to say they currently
downloaded video files (43% vs. 28%). However, when we look at bloggers who have
either downloaded music or video, bloggers are more likely to have done at least one of
these downloading activities, with 65% of bloggers reporting downloading music or
videos and 55% of non-bloggers saying the same. Additionally, 50% of bloggers who say
Most who download video share files, too.
Bloggers care more about copyright than non-bloggers do.