Kids in Tampa and St. Petersburg spend a lot of time online. In fact, they're No.1 in the country, according to a new survey.
About 47 percent of bay area kids ages 7 to 12 go online five or more times a week, according to America Online. They are followed by kids in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Chicago. Two tech capitals, San Francisco and Boston, tied for seventh.
The survey average for such frequent surfers was 34 percent.
The online survey of more than 2,000 kids and their parents in the 15 most populous metropolitan areas in the country by AOL and its Digital Marketing Services subsidiary coincided with AOL's kickoff of a new service aimed at kids, called KOL. The survey was not limited to AOL members. It was promoted on various Web sites, and participants filled out questionnaires at www.opinionplace.com
Among the Tampa Bay area users surveyed, online games (88 percent) was the most popular activity, according to the survey. Listening to music (67 percent), e-mail (53 percent), Instant Messaging (38 percent) and - honest - homework (61 percent) also ranked high on the activity list.
Kids say mom is best in the family at using the home PC (59 percent), and 86 percent of kids and their parents here say they have discussed online safety.
"The Tampa-St. Pete area has continually come up ranking high in these surveys," said AOL spokeswoman Tracy Williams. "It's seen as an increasingly tech-savvy area."
