They say that parents are always the last to know, and in the case of kids’ internet usage that appears to be very much the case.
   Study after study shows that parents think their kids use most of their online time doing homework-related searches.
   It's not true.
   In reality, Tommy is spending most of his time surfing the net for information on toys and cartoons and then chatting with his friends about it.
   That’s the finding of a new report from Nielsen//NetRatings, which examines the surfing habits of the nearly 27 million kids ages 2-17 who go online, representing one out of five at-home web users during September.
   The study found that the sites with the highest concentration of young users range from Mattel doll sites to DisneyChannel.com to Original Icons, a communications hub.
   Just what sites kids go to appears to be a factor of age, as with so many other media choices.
   Among the 12 million kids 2-11 who logged on at home during September, the sites that received the highest concentration of these users were Mattel’s Diva Starz, with 54 percent of all users aged 2-11, and ToonTown Online at 47 percent. Polly Pocket (46 percent), Barbie.com (41 percent) and DisneyChannel.com (39 percent) round out the top five, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
  Older kids, the 14.9 million surfers between 12 and 17, have slightly more sophisticated tastes.
   Original Icons, a site that lets users download instant messaging icons, had the highest concentration of 12-17 users at 78 percent.
    Also among the top five were Blunt Truth, a game site where kids learn how their friends feel about them (76 percent), Teen People (74 percent), FireHotQuotes.com (73 percent) and Buddy4u.com (73 percent).
  What's perhaps most mystifying is why parents still have so little awareness of what their kids are doing online.
   A study by the Media Awareness Network found that parents think kids use the internet more for schoolwork than they actually do.
   A recent Grunwald Associates study, conducted with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, found that a mere 42 percent of teens 13-17 say their parents influence their internet usage, though 50 percent of parents think they do.
   It’s not just American parents either who have these perceptions. 
   Canadian and Norwegian studies have found the same thing, that parents vastly overestimate internet time spend on homework.