kids

The options are looking even better for digitally minded chauffeur-driven tykes. After they have caught up on their e-mail and watched a movie or two, they might soon be able tap into a just-for-kids navigation system being developed by Volkswagen.

The prototype child navigation system comes complete with GPS data and a time worm that eats away the hours until arrival. Kids can also use the screen to play games and in-seat exercises.

The system is one of six ideas that Volkswagen is kicking around at its German test facilities. Others include an electronic sun visor, which uses an eye … Read more

YouTube is getting strict in enforcing its age requirements on the popular viral video site.

YouTubers have been complaining that the Google-owned company has been suspending accounts associated with several well-known YouTube child stars and providing no reason.

In response to queries by CNET News.com on the matter, a YouTube spokeswoman provided this statement on Thursday:

"All YouTube users must agree to and abide by our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines when they register for a YouTube account. This includes providing accurate registration information and being over the age of 13."

"We understand that young … Read more

At this week's Mashup 2007, a conference on teens and technology, a panel of young entrepreneurs talked about how they use social networks like MySpace and Facebook to communicate and keep up with friends, sometimes for hours a day. But what strikes me as a new member of Facebook is that the news feed on the main page of a profile is comprised of "stories" about friends (e.g., John is newly single), not actual news articles.

So it makes sense that a recent study from Harvard University showed that the majority of teens and young adults … Read more

Old-school book publishers are still trying to figure out how best to reach audiences on the Web and build online communities for their authors. That was the takeaway of a talk this week at Mashup 2007, a conference held in San Francisco that focused on teens and tech.

Diane Naughton, vice president of marketing at HarperCollins Children's Books, said that the challenge has shifted from the publishing industry holding the Internet at arm's length to worries about how to prove value from online marketing efforts.

One way HarperCollins plans to tackle this challenge is to team up with … Read more

A co-worker sent me a link to the kids pages at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Part of me is delighted that our government is trying to make itself more accessible to children. Indeed, next month I intend to take advantage of that very accessibility when our family visits Washington DC to see the three co-equal branches of our federal government and the various departments they operate. If we are lucky, we might even meet one or more of our elected representatives in person!

But part of me is mortified by the levels of propaganda filling pages that purport to be educational and the thought that millions of children may be exposed to such propaganda without thought or review by tech-savvy parents.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Last month, Danah Boyd, a well-known researcher of teen culture online, argued that class divisions in the United States could be split between MySpace.com and Facebook.

In essence, Boyd wrote, MySpace is home to a large population of "burnouts," punks or alternative-scene teenagers whose parents likely didn't go beyond a high school education. Facebook, in contrast, is a bustling hub for jocks, school nerds and prom queens planning for their university years. You get the division.

But what happens to the teens who don't have constant access to technology, unlike those spending hours a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Feeling bad about your accomplishments so far in life? Stop reading here.

Catherine Cook is the 17-year-old co-founder of myYearbook.com who spoke here Wednesday at the iMeme tech conference about her vision for online media. Instead of enjoying lazy summer days or drinking beer with friends, Cook's preoccupied with growing one of the most popular social media sites, which in little more than a year has millions in annual revenue, 3 million monthly unique visitors (according to ComScore), and $4.1 million in venture funding from U.S. Venture Partners and First Round Capital.

To illustrate where … Read more

If you've ever wondered who's driving like a bonehead up ahead, it could be a teen who's behind the wheel, steering with one hand and sending a text message with the other. According to a study from AAA and Seventeen magazine, cited by this USA Today article, almost half of teens surveyed admitted that they send text messages from the driver's seat. (The researchers interviewed about 1,000 teen drivers in the United States to compile the data.)

That dovetails with a study published Tuesday about teen cell phone habits, which commonly include texting from the … Read more

The Internet is apparently largely to blame for unwanted teen pregnancies in China's Shanghai, where many young girls get their ideas about sex from going online rather than talking to an adult, according to this article from Reuters released Tuesday.

Reuters cited a Chinese newspaper reporting that nearly half of pregnant teens in Shanghai met their partner on the Web. A doctor in the country who manages the teen-pregnancy hotline said that 46 percent of the more than 20,000 teenage girls who called in within the last two years said they had had sex with boys they met … Read more