Elgan: Are gadgets bad for kids?

Computerworld - I predicted back in March that Apple's iPad would become "the children's toy of the year." In that column, I pointed out why kids, parents and the "children's culture industry" would all love the iPad.

For their coverage of the 2010 holiday season, major news media are now reporting on the iPad-for-kids phenomenon, and several picked up my column, including USA Today. A lot of that coverage centers around whether gadgets in general, and iPads in particular, are good or bad for parents to give to children as gifts.

My column merely predicted that the iPad would be massively popular. I took no position on the wisdom of giving gadgets to kids. So I'll do that here: It's generally a bad idea.

The case for keeping kids away from gadgets

We make a great number of distinctions between activities that are appropriate for children and those that are not.

PG-13 ratings for movies and E ratings for video games tell parents that content has been approved for kids. Stores can't legally sell cigarettes and porn to children. You have to be 21 years old to enter a bar. YouTube makes you "sign in" before viewing racy videos.

The purpose of such bans and restrictions is to protect children from harm.

Do computers and gadgets harm kids? If so, shouldn't they be banned too -- if not by law, then at least by parental decree?

I think gadgets do cause harm, in the following ways:

Addiction. Computers and gadgets are addictive. Games, texting and frivolous online videos are especially so. It's also likely that the earlier kids start, the stronger their lifelong addiction.

Distraction. Smartphones, PCs, iPads and other devices are always there, offering a universe of entertainment. This makes it difficult for kids to focus on other things. Homework, for example. Chores. Dinnertime conversations. Distraction mode quickly becomes a habit so strongly ingrained that some kids simply cannot break it.

Shortened attention spans. It used to be that kids didn't have the patience to watch long YouTube videos. Now they don't even have the patience to watch short ones. When they bring up a video of some horrible skateboard accident, for example, if the face-plant doesn't happen in the first three seconds, they quickly swipe to fast-forward. The moment the injury has occurred, they're off to the next video. Attention spans have been shortening steadily for many years, but in the past few they seem to have gone off a cliff thanks to electronic media.

Reduced reading. Kids are reading a lot less now than they used to, primarily because of all the distracting video games, electronic diversions and computerized entertainment.