The Digital Sandbox

By Jennie Baird, iVillage

I spent several hours today at "The Sandbox Summit: A Playdate with Technology."

The sessions were focused on the impact of technology on children and families, and though I arrived in the middle of a session, I knew I had come to the right place. Dr. Warren Buckleitner, the editor of Children's Technology Review was making a plea to the developers of children's digital media: "Don't exploit tired, frustrated parents!" He urged digital businesses to create a code of ethics for Web sites and games aimed at children that would include standards around clear advertising and marketing.  He urged developers to give children and parents control -- in particular a high level of control in letting children take "breaks" in their games.

Wow! That's a concept that would change my life! How many times have I called my son to dinner -- but he just needs to finish this game? Or this level?

The next session was called "The Digital Family: Are We Speaking the Same Language?"  The panel went pretty off topic, covering a variety of issues around children's consumption of digital media. One of the key points I took away was the tendency of parents and schools to outright "block" sites that they consider potentially questionable. One of the panelists made the point that blocking sites like YouTube, for example, prevents children from learning for themselves valuable safety lessons of the Internet.  She made the comparison to crossing the street -- we don't tell our kids to never cross a street. We teach them to look both ways before crossing.  Parents need to use the Internet as a mechanism to teach their children their own family's values and to guide them through the decision making processes that they will need as they grow into independent young people. 

On the third panel, "What Is Technology Really Teaching Our Kids?" I learned a few of things:

1) 3-5 pm is the most stressful time of day for working parents (This according the CEO of Tutor.com, a service that provides individualized online homework help).

2) Video games teach children that experimentation and failure is an important part of mastery and critical to their educational development. 

3) Technology is having a huge impact on the ways our children learn, both inside and outside the classroom.  As a society we need to start addressing whether the curriculum needs to adapt.