• February 12, 2001

Online US kids, teenagers, and young adults aged 8 to 21 spent $2.4 billion on gifts for others during the 2000 holiday period. Girls were more generous in their gift giving than boys, and although Generation Y expresses a keen interest in buying online, online shopping has yet to take a firm hold among the nation's youth.

These are among the findings of the most recent wave of Harris Interactive YouthPulse(SM). The study measured responses of 3,139 young participants in January 2001 and found that holiday spending grows significantly with age: Eight to nine year olds spent about $15 on average, while 18-21 year olds spent about $130 during the same period. And, girls spent more than boys did - across all age ranges.

John Geraci, Harris Interactive's VP for Youth Research said, "The gap between girls' and boys' holiday spending actually widens with age. This is surprising in that we have also shown that boys have larger discretionary incomes than girls." Geraci added that boys were more likely to buy holiday gifts online than girls were and seem more comfortable with the concept of e-commerce.