(From PCMag.com) Will exposure to technology help our children be more productive members of an increasingly tech-savvy society or rob them of the chance to have a normal childhood? A recent study from AVG examined this issue and found that many kids age 2 to 5 have developed more tech skills than life skills.
"True, many of us had television, Atari, and the ultimate destroyer of innocence, cable. But none of these distractions so drastically and quickly reshaped the childhood experience as the computer and what ultimately formed its heart and soul, the Internet," AVG's J.R. Smith wrote in a blog post.
Smith was most concerned, however, about Internet safety issues. It's great that kids can operate advanced tech devices, he argued, but are parents taking the necessary precautions to keep them safe on the Web?
AVG polled 2,200 mothers with Internet access and kids between the ages of 2 and 5 in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The group found that while most small children can't yet swim, tie their shoelaces, or make breakfast on their own, they do know how to turn on a computer, point and click with a mouse, and play a computer game.
About 58 percent of the kids know how to play a computer game, while 20 percent can swim and 52 percent can ride a bike. Kids in the UK and France - about 70 percent - are most likely to be able to play video games, AVG found.
Categories: News | T+D