CHICAGO — The Internet has all but saturated the youth market, according to a new survey.

The report compiled for the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly nine out of 10 young people 12 to 17 surveyed have online access, up from about three-quarters in 2000.

By comparison, about 66 percent of American adults now use the Internet.

The survey, completed in late 2004, included responses from 1,100 young people who were contacted randomly by phone. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. Its findings included the following:

• Of those surveyed, 87 percent said they use the Internet. About half of the young people who have online access say they go on the Internet every day, up from 42 percent in 2000.

• Three-quarters of wired teens use instant message, compared with 42 percent of online adults who do so. Teens most often reserve instant messaging for friends and e-mail for adults, including parents and teachers.

• About half of families with teens who have an Internet connection have speedier broadband access, while the other half still use phone lines to connect.

• Nearly a third of teens who use instant messaging have used it to send a music or video file.

• While 45 percent of those surveyed have cellphones, those phones aren't necessarily the preferred mode of communication. Given a choice, about half of online teens still use land lines to call friends, while about a quarter prefer instant messaging and 12 percent say they'd rather call a friend on a cellphone.

• Older teen girls who were surveyed, ages 15 to 17, are among the most intense users of the Internet and cellphones, including text messaging.

"It debunks the myth of the tech-savvy boy," says Amanda Lenhart, a Pew researcher. As young people get Internet access at younger ages, that trend may only continue.

As wired as many young people are, the fact that about 3 million of them remain without Internet access is cause for concern, says Susannah Stern, an assistant professor of communications studies at the University of San Diego. Many of them are low-income and a disproportionate number are black, the survey found.

"When so many teenagers have such access, the few that don't are at a significant disadvantage," Stern says.