Teens not as web-savvy as parents?!

A recent study by Nielsen Norman (USA Today report here):

Think the teenager in your house can out-surf you? Think again. So says a study of 13- to 17-year-olds released Monday by the Nielsen Norman Group. [...] The study found that, contrary to stereotype, teens as a group are not as adept as adults in navigating the Web.

In the study, 38 teens were assigned tasks at 23 Web sites, operated by Apple, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and other companies and organizations.

At the Web site of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, teens were asked to make an appointment for a driving permit. At MTV.com, the challenge was to discover when Norah Jones would be in concert in the Golden State.

The teens completed such tasks 55% of the time, compared with 66% of adults in a previous study.

The results echo other studies. "There is this notion out there that these amazing multitasking, multigadget kids are running circles around their parents," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "And some of them are. But the out-of-it addled parent is now a pretty Internet-savvy person, by and large."

Immaturity and poor reading skills partly explained the youngsters' lackluster performance, the study concluded. So did the teens' weak research skills and unwillingness to tough it out when a site posed design obstacles.

Poor. Reading. Skills.