Girls aged between two and fourteen are spending more time this year on entertainment related activities such as playing videogames than they did last year, according to a new report from market research firm the NPD Group.

The report, entitled Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, says that girls aged 2-5 are highly engaged with traditional and educational toys, while those aged 6-8 are more inclined to play board games and virtual world games or engage in arts and crafts activities.

Playing with traditional toys is still the activity of choice for pre-teen girls aged 9-12, says the report, but this age group is migrating to computer and videogames, especially virtual world online games. ‘Socialization is gearing up among the pre-teens, and the advent of interactive gaming really hits home with these girls who are looking for friends from the confines of their homes,’ it reads.

The report found that young teens aged 13-14 are also gamers, but many spend their time listening to music on portable digital players and talking/texting on their mobile phones too.

“Some very traditional play patterns still are the most popular among girls, even in this digital age,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Over 50 percent of girls ages 2-14 engage with dolls, plush, and arts & crafts in a given week which is a testament to the evergreen nature of these types of activities for girls.

“Girls, in general, are famously social creatures,” Frazier added. “The growth in use of social networking and virtual world websites by girls is a natural extension of this core value which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as primary market for their goods and services.”

The report is based on 1,541 surveys completed by respondents with daughters aged 2-14.

The growing popularity of videogames with females of all ages has been widely documented in the past, and is often attributed to the booming casual games market and the impact of Nintendo’s Wii and DS systems.