CANBERRA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- A vast majority of young Australians regularly use their phones while driving, a survey has found.

The survey, conducted by the University of Canberra, revealed that motorists between the age of 17 and 24 were more likely to use their phone for entertainment purposes while behind the wheel than for any other reason.

Of the 612 respondents to the survey, 78 percent said they illegally used their phone to play music in the week prior to completing the survey while 70 percent read a message and 53 percent sent a message.

Less than 50 percent of the young drivers made or answered phone calls while behind the wheel but 21 percent used smart phones to access social media while driving.

Distraction has become one of the five most common causes of fatal vehicle accidents in Australia since smart phones have become commonplace over the last decade.

"The main themes for why the phones were being used was for entertainment, to connect with others and for practical purposes such as a GPS, highlighting how reliant we are on our phones these days," Amanda George, a researcher involved with the survey, told Fairfax Media on Monday.

"What was interesting in the focus groups was again it emphasised the complete normalisation of it.

"Among their peer group the perception was that almost everyone does it, people know that it's risky but they're going to do it anyway."

She said that views on phone use were in direct contrast to those on driving under the influence of alcohol.

"Drink driving in our focus groups was perceived very negatively, considered very unacceptable and risky but mobile phone use was acceptable even while risky," George said.