UK teens' reasons for Net use

Homework is No. 1 (76%), followed by instant messaging (52%), for 13-to-18-year-old Britons who were asked their main reason for going online. Thirty-six percent said shopping was their main reason, 18% "news and current affairs," and "more than one in 10 teenagers frequently use the Internet to look at 'adult-only' Web sites," the BBC reports, leading with this last statistic (12%). The findings were part of this year's installment of an eight-year study (ending in '09) by the UK's National Foundation for Educational Research about "the effect of citizenship lessons - introduced across England - on children's development." The Register treated the news differently, leading with: "A UK government survey has found that just 12% of 13 to 18-year-olds avail themselves of 'adult-only' websites, preferring instead to use the internet to assist in doing homework or for news."