While doing his homework, he usually leaves open his Web browser, his e-mail program, and a Web chat program called ICQ for keeping in constant touch with his friends. On evenings, weekends, and vacations, Kojima makes money doing Web-design work. Welcome to the digital reinvention of childhood. Kids have a staggering breadth of material readily available online. Their reach is global.
Kids can chat freely with friends half a world away.
Meanwhile, parents are torn. Others worry that we're raising a generation that is losing the ability to conduct logical, coherent discourse. The kindergartens and preschools of America are ready. The Wall Street Journal reports that KinderCare Learning Centers has computers in all of its 1,151 child-care centers, while another offers computer training to children as young as 2. The Journal also reports a surge in the sale of software for babies.