• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 21, 2007

Social networks and online communities may be all the rage with the older set, but when it comes to kids, their No. 1 activity is - surprise - games. Asked by media researcher Mediamark Research & intelligence what activities they did online in the last 30 days, 78.1% of kids ages 6-11 said they played online games, which was more than double the percentage citing the next most common online activity: school/homework.

Interestingly, there was not a significant gender skew in terms of online gaming. MRI found that 77.7% of boys cited gaming vs. 78.5% of girls, though boys appear to be spending more time accessing the Web to learn tips and so-called "cheats" for solving games, some of which may be played on off-line console or PC systems too.

Cheats are codes that can be entered into a video game to change the game's behavior, alter characters' look and abilities, skip levels, or access hidden features. One-quarter of boys (25.8%) versus only 5.6% of girls report they went online to get tips or cheats for their gaming.

Not surprisingly, the third most popular activity for kids was listening to music (28.6%), followed by and watching videos (26.2%). Girls are significantly more likely than boys to have listened to music online in the past 30 days (33.0% vs. 24.1%). Boys, on the other hand, are slightly more likely than girls to have watched videos online in the past 30 days (28.9% vs. 23.5%).