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Kid’s Play

A new study revisits worries about kids and computers.

By Doug Johnson

Following up on its controversial 2000 report Fool’s Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood , the Alliance for Childhood has issued a second study that continues to caution against the use of technology with younger children. Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology argues that through elementary school, kids spend too much time in front of computer screens rather than with caring adults or their peers. There is also little evidence of the benefits—but growing evidence of harm—associated with computer use, according to the report, which notes that current technology literacy models have not been...