Should 4-year-olds have Facebook pages and own their own tablets?
Adweek reports that a study for Bonnier’s Parenting Group by Walker Communications found that 7 percent of children younger than 4 have their own Facebook pages. The study found that 45 percent of children between the ages of 9 and 12 have a Facebook page.
American families see tablets as playmate and babysitter
The rise of gadgets is ushering in a new generation of kids who are growing up digital. According to a Nielsen survey of adults with children under 12 in tablet-owning households, in late 2011 seven out of every 10 children used a tablet computer – a nine percent increase compared to earlier in 2011. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said children play downloaded games on their tablets and 57 percent said children used tablets to access educational apps. The portable gadget also keeps kids quiet while families are on the go: 55 percent and 41 percent of parents report that their children used tablets for entertainment while traveling or in restaurants, respectively. This can also include watching TV shows and movies, which 43 percent of children often do.
Cameron tweets from bottom of ocean
Film director James Cameron recently rode a high-tech one-man submarine to the deepest known point in the world’s oceans. Cameron spent hours collecting samples and shooting 3D footage, and also found time to fire off a celebratory tweet from the ocean floor. “Just arrived at the ocean’s deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good,” he wrote.
‘Intelligent’ school uniforms embedded with GPS chips
Grade-school students in Sao Paolo, Brazil are using uniforms embedded with computer chips that alert parents if they’re cutting classes, the city’s education secretary said. Twenty thousand students in 25 of the of Vitoria da Conquista’s 213 public schools started using T-shirts with chips, secretary Coriolano Moraes said by telephone. By 2013, all of the city’s 43,000 public school students — aged 4 to 14 — will be using the chip-embedded T-shirts, he added. The “intelligent uniforms” tell parents when their children enter the school building by sending a text message to their cell phones. Parents are also alerted if kids don’t show up 20 minutes after classes begin with the following message: “Your child has still not arrived at school.”
Colorado using computer to reduce license delays
Gov. John Hickenlooper has unveiled a new computer system that the state hopes will reduce wait times for driver’s licenses. The program being launched Thursday is called the Wait Less project. It lets people schedule appointments online before they go to a driver’s license office. Nearly one million Colorado residents visit state license offices to get a Colorado driver’s license or state-issued identification card each year.
Survey: Women trust blogs and Pinterest
More than four-fifths of U.S. women say they trust blogs and Pinterest, according to a BlogHer study, compared with about two-thirds who say they trust Facebook. Six out of 10 women said they bought products based on a blog recommendation, and nearly half bought products based on Pinterest posts. Only about a third made purchases based on Twitter or Facebook recommendations, Adweek reports.
Tweeted photo causes mistrial
A Kansas judge declared a mistrial in a murder trial April 11 after a newspaper reporter tweeted a photo that included the grainy profile of a juror. The Shawnee County Kansas district attorney’s office said it plans to reschedule Austin Tabor’s trial for June or July after the abrupt halt to proceedings in Topeka one day after attorneys presented opening statements. “One of the photos apparently showed one or more of the jurors,” said Lee McGowan, spokesman for the district attorney’s office. “It was brought to the court’s attention and ultimately a mistrial was declared.”