• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 14, 2006

Teens spend as much time surfing the Web as watching TV, according to a report released Tuesday by CBSNews.com.

The report, based on a telephone poll of 449 U.S. teens ages 13 to 19, found that teens who use the Web spend an average of 2.9 hours a day online--the same length of time as TV-watching teens spend with the small screen. CBSNews.com released its report the day after Burst Media unveiled research stating that around 37 percent of teens spend more than three hours a day online.

What do teens do online? Researching work for school was a nearly universal activity, with 90 percent saying they use the Web for school assignments frequently or occasionally. The majority of teens also use the Internet to communicate with others, with e-mail use surpassing instant messaging. Sixty-three percent said they use e-mail frequently or occasionally, compared to 53 percent who use messaging frequently or occasionally.

In a finding consistent with Burst's study, more than three out of five teens have visited social networking sites; 65 percent of respondents in the CBSNews.com poll said they had posted at least once on sites like MySpace or Facebook, while 63 percent read posts on such sites at least once. (Burst found that 61 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 had visited social networking sites.)

Youngsters also went online for entertainment. Fifty-nine percent said they either frequently or occasionally download music, 44 percent reporting frequent or occasional game-playing, and 37 percent saying they frequently or occasionally watch videos online.