Teens and children account for an increasingly large part of Internet users

Teenagers and children account for 18.8% of all Internet users in the U.S., up from 18.3% in 2004, according to a new eMarketer report. That number is expected to increase to 20.1% by 2008.

Teens between 12 and 17 years represent 10.8% of U.S. Internet users while children aged 3 to 11 years accounted for 8% of users, eMarketer says.

Nearly three-quarter of teenagers use the Internet, up from 70.5% a year ago. By 2008, 87.3% of the teen population will be online, eMarketer estimates.

Only 39.4% of children are Internet users, an increase from 37.5% in 2004. EMarketer estimates that 43.7% of children will be online by 2008.

EMarketer based its estimates on 2003 data on Internet users from the U.S. Department of Commerce.