The report is part of a $50 million initiative to investigate how digital media affect the way teenagers learn and socialize. Twenty-eight researchers conducted the study.

Wasting Time?

"When adults look at teens today, they think what they are doing is different and seem to be wasting a lot of time online hanging out with their friends or playing video games, and these are activities that can seem quite foreign," said Mizuko Ito, the report's lead author and a researcher at the University of California Irvine. "But when we look closely at what kids are doing, it's not much different than what their parents did. They are hanging out with their friends, finding romantic partners, and trying to identify their status and identity."

Ito added that today's teens are being raised with technologies that allow them to pursue self-directed learning on their own terms, on their own time, and without the restrictions of a classroom setting. This gives the teens a feeling of freedom and autonomy.

"This is very different from how kids learn in school when they are handed a set body of knowledge they are asked to master and the expertise really resides in the teachers," Ito said.

"Our feeling after spending time with kids was that a lot of the worries about predators are overblown given what kids are really doing online," Ito said in a phone interview. "When kids are engaged in friendship-driven (interactions online), they are communicating with kids they already know. They actually think it is pretty creepy if there are adults on that page and their ideas are not that far off from their parents."

Asked about teens spending too much time online, Ito said that as with anything, it is a matter of balance. "Look, let's look carefully at what kids are getting from the participation and look at ways to guide them through the participation so it is more productive," she said.

Some Specifics

There were two significantly different categories in which the teens were motivated to engage online. They were either driven by interest or friendship, according to the 58-page report. (continued...)

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