Family and Child Online Safety Blog - SafetyClicks

This holiday season, there are many products hoping to catch the attention of the kids. If the kids love and desire the new gadgets and gizmos, they are sure to appear on wish lists. It is not all that surprising to see that computer manufacturers have come up with lower cost laptops geared directly at kids. This article is not intended to be a review of any of the computers, as I have not played with any of them. Instead, I am amazed at what technology is available for kids.

Many of the children's laptops don't connect to the Internet, like this one from Barbie. It is designed with girls in mind, having the Barbie packaging, but it is similar to a real laptop in how it works, regarding games and how you play them.

This one from VTech is more gender neutral. It is more "laptop like" in that it has educational games preloaded and Mom or Dad can help download new games from the Internet when your child is ready for them.

Even babies and toddlers have them. My daughter (who is not quite a year old) got a toy laptop as a gift. It just looks like a laptop, and has numbers, letters and colors. If children have toys like this at such a young age, is it any wonder that they want to get on the real computer at younger and younger ages?

What are your thoughts about computers being introduced to kids at such a young age?