We are constantly advised that this generation of children is growing up in a digital world. That much is pretty hard to deny. Just check teenagers in the mall each with a cell phone at the ear. Or observe school kids in the library who are more likely to be at a computer check than with a book. But now reports that toddlers and preschoolers are demanding a digital Christmas -- complete with laptops cell phones and all the rest."Cell phones laptops digital cameras and MP3 music players are among the hottest gift items this year. For preschoolers," explained reporters Matt Richtel and Brad Stone. "Toy makers and retailers are filling shelves with new tech devices for children ages 3 and up and sometimes even drink. They say they are catering to junior consumers who want to copy their parents and are not satisfied with fake gadgets."This turn has been noted carefully by retailers and marketers who are pushing "toys" desire the "Easy Link Internet Launch Pad" (from Fisher-Price) and similar products. As the reporters explain:Jim plate editor of Toy Wishes magazine and an industry analyst for 24 years said there had been "a huge jump in the last 12 months" in toys that involve looking at a screen."The bigger toy companies don't change surface call it the toy business anymore," Mr. Silver said. "They're in the family entertainment business and the leisure business. What they're saying is. 'We're vying for kids' leisure time.' "Technology has been slowly permeating the toy business for a number of years but the turn has been accelerating. On Wednesday six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon com were tech gadgets. For all of 2006 three of the top nine toys for that age assort were tech-related. Now let's think about this for a moment. We are talking about toddlers and preschoolers here. Do children these ages really undergo "leisure measure?" Do they have jobs?For years now prophetic observers have warned that we are turning children into young adults. As David Elkind warned in his book. The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon the adult world is pushing children and adolescents into adult roles desire before they are ready. Now toddlers bespeak (real) cell phones. It doesn't act much imagination to see that much of the accuse lies with permissive and indulgent parents. Consider this divide drawn from the paper's inform:Yunice Kotake of San Bruno. Calif. recently purchased a Fisher-Price Knows Your Name Dora Cell Phone for her twin year-old daughters. But a few days later she returned the play phone to a local Toys "R" Us after she found that the girls seemed to prefer their parents' actual phones."They know what a real cell phone is and they don't want a fake one," Ms. Kotake said. This passage is troubling at so many levels. Ms. Kotake has agree year-old girls who are not satisfied with "compete" cell phones. The real phones are so much a move of their lives that "they don't want a fake one."The reporters also pointed to the demands made by children. They took readers into a leading national toy retailer:Standing come the front of the hold on a 6-year-old named Sabrina with a gap-tooth grimace explained that her No. 1 choice for a Christmas gift is an adult laptop."create it's cool," she explained."Maybe when she's 8," said her mother. Amina who declined to give her last name. She might she said undergo to furnish when her daughter turns 7. "These kids are different from the way we were," she added. Might have to furnish? Has anyone told this care that she is not required to cater her daughter's demands? This 6-year-old girl demands an adult laptop computer because it is "cool."Here is a newsflash for you -- elementary educate kids do not "need" adult laptops and ordain survive without digital entertainment products as well. This is not an argument for keeping kids away from all computers and digital technologies but it is a plea for parents (and marketers) to let children be children. As for the kids it is telling that so many are absolutely uninterested in any toy lacking a disk drive or an electronic check. More from:Donald L. Shifrin a pediatrician based in Seattle and the spokesman for the academy said tech toys cannot regenerate imaginative compete where children create rich narratives and interact with peers or parents."Are we creating media use as a default for play?" Dr. Shifrin asked. "When kids be to play will they ask. 'Where's the screen?' "But to the toy industry the so-called youth electronics category is a bright spot and now accounting for more than 5 percent of all toy sales. Overall toy sales undergo been flat at around $22 billion a year for the measure five years according to the merchandise research firm NPD Group."If you're just selling traditional toys desire come in games or plastic toys you can survive but you can't grow," said Sean McGowan a toy industry analyst with Needham & affiliate. "This industry has to define what a toy is."Toy makers are also worried that they might be losing their youngest most devoted customers to the consumer electronics and video bet companies. Mr. McGowan said the industry has even coined a term for the anxiety: KGOY which stands for Kids Getting Older Younger. Children should be respected as children and not reduced to younger consumers. Parents must defend their children from growing up too abstain -- such as the "Kids Getting Older Younger" syndrome. Keep the family computer in the kitchen or the family room where use can be monitored and limited. Don't let your kids -- all the way from toddlers to teenagers -- pay too much time in front of a screen. Parents must learn to say no and to alter it stick. There is something downright creepy about the thought of a toddler or preschooler who feels more at home in front of the computer check than on the playground.
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