Items tagged with Children
If you watch too much TV or play on your phone for too long, and your brain will go to mush. Or at least that is what we have been told over the years. While those claims may be outlandish, there have been legitimate concerns about increased mental health problems relating to increased technology use. Researchers at Oxford University have found that not to be the case, though, after completing a study over data from the previous 30 years with a combined total of 430,000 participants from the U.S. and the U.K. The researchers at Oxford set out to investigate links between social media and technology use to depression, emotional problems, and conduct problems. However, technology and social media...
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Toy maker VTech initially informed the public of a security breach this past Friday, right when millions of Americans were in the midst of Black Friday shopping. VTech disclosed that its customer database was compromised, exposing names, email addresses, mailing addresses, download histories and encrypted passwords for users. Even more troubling is that in addition to 4.8 million adult accounts that were affected by the breach, 200,000 children were also caught up in the mess. Earlier this morning, VTech gave a status update, describing that the initial breach occurred on November 14th. However, it wasn’t until ten days later — November 24th — that VTech noticed that its servers had been compromised....
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Move over Raspberry Pi, there’s a new micro computer in town, and it’s geared [for now] primarily at British schoolchildren. We first brought you news about the Micro:bit in early March as a part of the BBC’s “Make it Digital” campaign. At the time the device was still in the prototype stage, but the device is now being shown to the public in its final production form. The Micro:bit measures just 2-inches by 1.6-inches and is powered by a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 processor. You’ll also find two push buttons for input, a microUSB connector, Bluetooth connectivity, an accelerometer, a compass, and 25 programmable LED lights clustered around the center of the board (you can see more of the device’s...
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If you're late to the game, you might as well bring some serious naming heat to get noticed. That's what Oregon Scientific are doing, with the unveiling of the "MEEP!" Android tablet. That's correct; there's now a tablet named MEEP! It's pretty tough to believe, but true nonetheless. Not surprisingly, it's designed for children, and will reportedly feature music, movies, e-books, parental controls and other kid-friendly attributes. It's clearly aimed to take some of Leapfrog's market share -- not that of the iPad -- offering a 7" touchpanel, Wi-Fi, an SD card slot, internal storage and a G-Sensor. All websites and content can be monitored through intuitive parental controls that are adjusted...
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AVG launched AVG Family Safety, a new application that is designed to help parents protect their children online. AVG Family Safety acts as a virtual guardian for children by letting parents create age-appropriate settings and profiles for each child in the home. These profiles can be adjusted as the child gets older and as their digital behavior and habits change. AVG Family Safety can filter unwanted communication from over 80 social networking sites. Chats and network threads can also be monitored. The software can monitor what websites children are visiting and what searches they are conducting online. Full reporting is also available to help parents know what sites their children have visited....
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Is the boob tube your child's best friend? Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that preschool-age children watch no more than two hours of TV a day, a recent study shows that many children exceed this limit. According to researchers at the Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington, 66 percent of the 8,950 children the team studied watched more TV than the recommended limit. This study was based on data that included children 5 and younger between 2001 and 2006. As a result, the results are already dated—they do not include time spent watching or playing video games or being on a computer. They also exclude any time spent watching video on...
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PCs built for kids aren't all that different from the netbooks and notebooks you and I carry around today. Take the latest PeeWee Power Laptop, for example. This 3.5 pound machine features an Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of memory, a 10.1 inch LCD screen, and a 6-cell battery. It runs on Windows XP, but also has PeeWee Patrol and PeeWee Privacy software to help ensure your kids are safe on the net and don't get into files they shouldn't access. Recognizing that kids and accidents often meet, the laptop also features drop-proof construction and a spill resistant keyboard. PeeWee PC Announces Availability of New PeeWee Power Laptop Built for kids ages 4-8 the durable, spill resistant notebook...
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A new analysis of 130 total studies covering more than 130,000 gamers from elementary school age to college age conducted in the U.S.A., Europe and Japan reasserts the influence of violent video games on aggression in children. Dr. Craig Anderson's conclusions appeared in Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association on Monday.Dr. Anderson is a psychologist at Iowa State University. After reviewing the findings of past studies, Anderson said:"Playing those types of games increased the likelihood of later aggressive behavior, increase aggressive emotion. It also increases what you might think of as desensitization, or a lack of empathy."Anderson said the results held...
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Taser, which has already started to expand out from its ubiquitous Taser line of stun guns, announced they are have entered the realm of cell phone software. The cellphone software, called Protector, is designed to give parents control over their children's cell phones, including monitoring and limiting texting and phone calls.This type of software is not new, but Taser claims that "nobody's put the whole thing together" as they have.In addition, although there are other products like this around, the name Taser carries a lot of weight. Naturally, not all of Taser's notoriety is positive, but the brand, at least, is well-known. The service, however, will not launch until mid-2010.When it launches,...
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Kids and cell phones. You can't live with 'em, and you can't live without 'em. We're speaking of the kids, actually, as cell phones, most teens would say they can't live without, period. A new Pew Internet & Life Project survey (.PDF) shows that, unsurprisingly, cell phone use is continuing to rise among teens. Specifically, the first Pew survey in 2004 showed that 45% of teens had a cell phone. As of 2008, that number had risen to 71%. The survey had 914 respondents in 2004, vs. 2,134 respondents in 2008. Data was collected from those 12 - 17 years of age.A new Pew Internet & Life Project survey (.PDF) shows that, unsurprisingly, cell phone use is continuing to rise among teens. Age...
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New studies conducted at a number of prominent Universities around the country have finally revealed what many of us gamers and long time technophiles have known all along--video games can help kids learn, and improve dexterity and some cognitive functions.Other information gathered from the studies, however, didn't focus solely on game-playing children. They also used information gathered to gauge the abilities of some doctors and surgeons, and found that playing video games had a huge impact on their abilities as well."One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those...
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