Green Day rocks with America's kids

Show host Jack Black slimes kids in the audience at the 19th annual Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice awards in Los Angeles. Picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Punk rock rules with America's youngsters, who voted Green Day their favourite group at the Kids Choice Awards on Saturday.

The Bay Area trio also nabbed the honour for favourite song ("Wake Me Up When September Ends"), and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong injected a dose of rebelliousness into proceedings.

"Don't believe everything you see on television, and stick it to the man," Armstrong told the crowd of 10,000 caffeinated kids and their parents during Nickelodeon's 19th annual bash at the Pauley Pavilion.

The awards were the latest in a long list of accolades for Green Day, whose politically charged album "American Idiot" is still in the US pop charts after 79 weeks. In February, the group won the coveted record of the year Grammy.

Other Kids Choice winners also tried to keep things serious amid the din.

Perennial winner Will Smith, named favourite movie actor for "Hitch," told the kids to choose friends who are "really smart" rather than those who are "really dumb."

Chris Rock, winner of the "Wannabe Award" for role models, implored them not to try steroids, even if they taste good.

Performers included feisty rocker Pink who sang her new tune "Stupid Girls," whose video satirises such tabloid favourites as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.

Coincidentally, Pink took the stage right after Lohan picked up her award for favourite movie actress in "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Lohan did not stick around to watch.

- REUTERS/VNU