Nielsen Online reports that nearly 16 million kids (ages 2-11) in the USA are online users, almost evenly split by gender, and their numbers are growing faster than total Internet users—and faster than the increase in the number of US children.
Even though the US Census Bureau predicts a 1% decline in the number of kids under 14 between 2004 and 2010, since 2004 the online child population has increased 18%, compared with 10% growth in Internet users as a whole.
The amount of time children spent on a PC also increased by 63% in the past 5 years. Boys surfed somewhat longer than girls, but girls viewed more Web pages.
In May 2009, kids spent an average of more than 11 hours online and viewed about 400 pages. During those 11 hours, they watched a lot of video. The top brand for video viewing among boys was Pokémon and for girls, it was Barbie.
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