Are Kids Just Little Adults When It Comes to Technology?
Do kids like the gear that’s being made for them or do they just want an iPod like the grownups have?
Published: July, 2005
Goya, the famous Spanish painter was known for his paintings of the royal court. But if you’ve ever looked at his pictures, you’d see that the kids are just miniature adults — with adult garb and adult expressions on their posed faces. After Goya, at the end of the 18 th century, a new school of artists began painting kids as kids, and not little adults.
Technology makers today are having the same Goya-esque struggle. They’re creating kids products for kids, but it’s not clear that kids wouldn’t rather be mini-adults.
To take this debate out of the abstract all you need to do is to look at some of the notable products coming out shortly.
DESIGNED JUST FOR KIDS
Firefly Mobile PhonesThe Firefly Mobile, a phone with no keypad has bells and whistles for kids but appeals to parents’ safety concerns.
Kids want cell phones; parents are reluctant to just hand a full fledged cell phone over to an 8-12 year old. Fear of out of control phone bills and the invasion of their kids’ privacy are just two of the many reasons for the concerns.
Fireflys are colorful mobile phones that are missing one big thing that grown up cell phones have, and that’s a keypad. Parents pre-program the phone with up to 20 phone numbers (including two speed buttons for Mom and Dad). And since it’s prepaid, kids can’t spend more than their allotment without coming back and nagging for more. At the same time, Firefly has lots of the stuff that kid’s love : bright lights, ring tones, and it comes in pretty colors. It’s a perfect “my first cell phone”.
Well, almost perfect. The biggest drawback is a tiny black and white screen. Parents need to input each phone number by toggling through the screen’s nearly unreadable numeric display. And parents who are somewhat familiar with a cell phones by now will find they’ve got to learn an entirely new metaphor to program their kid’s phone.
I showed Firefly to a number to tweens who thought it was very cool and a nice stepping stone on the path to phone ownership, but parents will need to be ready to put some effort into learning to be their kid’s phone masters. Besides, it’s usually the kids that program the parent’s phones, and not vice versa.
Elsewhere on the communications front, Hasbro is about to introduce a new wireless communicator called Chat Now. Chat Now combines walkie-talkie functionality ( at 2 mile range) with a built in digital camera and the ability to send text messages. Kids will call buddy numbers to get in touch with other Chat Now kids. While it looks like a cell phone, Chat Now is probably more of a toy than a tool. It will sell for about $75 and should be available by September. Adult radio operators, by the way, are none too pleased that kids’ newest tool will be encroaching on their airwaves..
Meant for the girls, Mattel will be launching “MyScene” phones, under $50 prepaid cell phones featuring some wild and crazy scenes on the phones, including favorite properties like “Barbie”. While Mattel expects these phones to “ring true” to girls, the girls tell me they’re not too keen on celebrity branded phones and electronics because they tend to be fads that are here today, gone tomorrow.
LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN
If kids’ products aren’t getting the kids too excited they might be good candidates for being treated as little adults, if they can afford the price tag.
SONY PSP Products like the SONY PSP with its wireless communications, ability to play photos, videos, music and some great video games is high on every tweens desirability list, but the cost is high too. The PSP sells for $250 and is best used as a game, and not communications, machine.
xBox 360 Elsewhere on the coveted adult product list is the Microsoft Xbox. Not only is it a gaming machine extraordinaire that plays some only-found- on- Xbox- games, it’s also got entertainment and communications capabilities that will let it be the center of the digital living room . With digital video, audio, and photos from networked PCs or streamed over the web the Xbox can be a varied source of entertainment. Kids love the cachet of the Xbox because with games like Halo it has an exclusive club feel to it. Parents should know that of all of the game machines Xbox has the least amount of family content.
T/Mobile Sidekick II And finally there’s T/Mobile’s SideKick II , one of my personal favorites. It mixes some organizational skills like a calendar and address book with a very cool phone design, AOL IM, and a built- in camera. The pop-up full sized keyboard is a delight.
Products designed for kids are short on features but the price is right and there’s a degree of perceived safety.