The New York Times recently posted an article about mothers and technology, using a study from Parenting magazine and a woman’s social media Web site called BlogHer. The moms surveyed said that new tech could be a good thing for their families, even though it demanded more effort to keep up with the latest advances and more diligence to keep their kids safe.
But here’s what I found to be most interesting: The article also discussed the average age limits that these tech-savvy parents set for kids and their gadgetry. Mums said that children should be 7 years old before getting an iPod, 10 for an e-mail account, 11 before landing their first cell phone, 13 for a desktop, 14 for social networking site privileges and 15 for a smartphone.
And while I was thinking those age ranges sounded a bit young, the article’s author thought those limitations were set “fairly high” for the kids of today.
Do most folks really think 11 years old is way past the sell-by date on kids and cell phones? I’m finding that hard to believe. So should mom and dad be handing out flip phones at, what, 9 or 8? Should your tyke really be surfing MySpace at the ripe old age of 10?
Call me old fashioned, but I’m thinking kids ought to be able to at least tie their own shoes before they start tweeting Justin Bieber.
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