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Parents and educators have long worried that digital diversions like video games and cellphones cut into time that children spend reading. However, they see the potential for using technology to their advantage, introducing books to digitally savvy children through e-readers, computers and mobile devices

Many children want to read books on digital devices and would read for fun more frequently if they could obtain e-books. But even if they had that access, two-thirds of them would not want to give up their traditional print books.

Parents and educators have long worried that digital diversions like video games and cellphones cut into time that children spend reading. However, they see the potential for using technology to their advantage, introducing books to digitally savvy children through e-readers, computers and mobile devices.

But many parents surveyed also expressed deep concerns about the distractions of video games, cellphones and television in their children’s lives. They also wondered if the modern multi-tasking adolescent had the patience to become engrossed in a long novel. “My daughter can’t stop texting long enough to concentrate on a book,” said one parent surveyed, the mother of a 15-year-old in Texas. Another survey participant, the mother of a 7-year-old Michigan boy, said, “I am afraid my son’s attention span will only include fast-moving ideas, and book reading will become boring to him.”

"It's bad for us, but it sure is fun," said Eric Bautista, 13, one of the students in Sister Jolene Schmitz's junior high school class at Resurrection School in Sunnyvale, Calif.

r, the Apple computer and the Atari video game all were invented. They spend their days (and nights) surfing the Web, playing online games and instant messaging. Most have cell phones in their backpacks. And many have at least one parent who works in the electronics industry.

Yet, when asked to weigh the benefits of having high technology in their lives versus the costs -- intellectually, emotionally, socially -- of that technology, the class voted 31-3 negative … a ratio so extreme that it argues against an aberration and toward a larger question about the overall impact of technology on the lives of our young people.

phone use to brain cancer, salivary gland tumors,

These were largely due to research such as one in which Danish children who use cell phones often were shown to have an 80% higher risk of emotional and hyperactivity problems. Mothers who use cell phones heavily during pregnancy had the same risks.

safety for kids since a cell phone can be used to determine the whereabouts of kids and the kids can also call the parents in case of emergency when they need help.

Nowadays with the increasing number of threats at schools, it is obvious for parents to be worried about their child’s safety

s for the cons of cell phones, there are many. First and foremost, the parents have to be really sure whether their child is capable of handling the responsibility of carrying a mobile phone. Having a cell phone might lead the child to all the probable ways in which the cell phone can be misused. It is one thing to make the children comfortable with technology but giving them their very own mobile phone at an early age might turn them into mobile junkies who are addicted to their mobile phones with constant short messaging, cell phone games and other add-ons. Also think of it from the health point of view. In a world where we hear reports about excessive use of mobile phones being harmful for the health, how could we possibly allow the children to be exposed to these threats?

teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008

who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.

texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop

People also use the Internet to steal other people’s money or spread bad things like gossips or unfounded criticisms.

When children went home, some of them go straight to their room to start their computers instead of having a chat with their parents.

We rely on it to communicate instead of talking to each other, and our relationship between each other become distant

a new form of schooling

hundreds of thousands of students

online

Accounts are phished when users are tricked into clicking an email or IM link taking them to fake login pages.  Once phished, scammers use various applications to suck out personal information from a user's entire network of friends. 

Perhaps the most common reason that teens' private information is exposed is because they are easily tricked into accepting friend requests from strangers

Four years ago it was rare to learn of a child under 7th grade with an account.  Last fall, for the first time, 4th graders began reporting to us that they had Facebook accounts.  We now estimate that about 60 - 70% of 7th graders have accounts and the number is higher for 8th graders.  These children are too young to be using Facebook or other adult social networks for the reasons detailed below.

This week, Education World examines both sides of the Is technology worth it? de

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