Eight out of ten children between the ages of 4 and 17 frequently play computer or video games, according to a new poll from AOL Games and the Associated Press.

A new study finds that parents have become more conflicted in their view of the Internet and how it relates to their children.

Miss America is taking steps to keep kids safe on the Internet with a new web browser designed especially for kids. Miss America, Lauren Nelson, spoke exclusively in a video interview with WebProNews about the launch. The browser is a partnership with the Children’s Educational Network.

Widgets are all the rage lately, as evidenced by the avalanche at Facebook once the social networking site opened up to developers. Advertisers, too, are figuring out that if you want to get to the younger crowds, widgets are the way to go.

When you read about publishers on WebProNews, it tends to be because Google’s doing something with them.  This time, however, Houghton Mifflin is in the news, and it’s Microsoft, not Google, with which the company has been associated.

Through several months of observation, Danah Boyd found something of a divide between users of social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

There are at least two sides to this and we’ll try to address them both. The Center for Digital Democracy is looking to the US government to regulate the marketing of unhealthy food to children online.

MoveOn’s executive director Eli Pariser called MySpace a "serial censorer of user-generated content" and presented a litany of complaints about the social networking site’s practices.

Children between the ages of 8 to 14 years old are performing a variety of tasks online such as shopping and helping their parents navigate the Internet, according to a study from Stars for Kidz, "Surfin on Mom’s Turf".

The photo community site has a party planned for Saturday, March 3rd, in San Francisco to celebrate Flickr’s third birthday.

For children ages 6-11 the most common online activity is playing games with 48 percent saying they had done so at least once in the last month according to new data from Experian Simmons. While that is not a major revelation what is surprising is that 21 percent said they had used the Internet to do homework and research.

Numedeon, Inc., creators of Whyville the educational virtual world for children and young teenagers, has created a site for NASA

Popular children’s cable network Nickelodeon is venturing into the virtual world with their launch of Nicktropolis today. The site is geared towards children 6 to 14 and allows visitors to enter a virtual world where they can play games, watch video, interact with other kids, and create their own 3D rooms.

Something entitled “The Sausage Manifesto” harkens to memory surreal Kids In The Hall sketches – kissing the sausage box; a scratchy-throated table-pounding old Canadian with a one-track disgustingly syrupy mind – but that’s not what it is. The Sausage Manifesto is a marching order written in the chilly twilight of a Chicago morning: a writ demanding that search engines do more about click fraud.

InfoSpace, Inc an online provider of search and directory services has launched a new search engine aimed at children between the ages of 8 to 13. The new search engine is called Zoo.com. The goal is minimize the exposure to explicit content while providing a solid search engine.

I’m off to see the Google Reader team later today (among others, I have another day packed with interviews, will head over to Salesforce.com’s big shindig in SF in the afternoon).

PSP-toting kids can receive RSS feeds. Mobile phone cameras can narrowcast video straight to TV.

She must have seen the Center for Media Research report that eBay was the #1 auto sales destination on the Web before she placed her Ferrari Enzo – and herself – on the auction block. It’s not because she needs the money; she needs a husband as rich (or richer) than she is.

Imbee has has launched a new social networking site that caters to kids.

A page that worth bookmarking is MissingKidsMap.com, a mashup that uses Google Maps API and information provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to create a regularly updated map of the origins of missing children in the United States.

An 11-year old’s social studies presentation has sparked a discussion at the Digital Point search engine forums, when the girl found that Google just wasn’t good enough to help her school research.