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Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
From our overview of new kinds of online-safety options - and products that represent them - on display at the June '99 Digital Kids conference in San Francisco...
Toy computers that connect (June 18, '99 issue)
These have been around a while - electronic toys designed to teach the basics of computing. Now they'll be teaching the basics of going online. Right now, these products by VTech and Oregon Scientific are text-only, so they only offer e-mail. Oregon Scientific and its subsidiary Safe-Site will also sell a modem ($50) and Internet service ($15/mo.), but they told us virtually any modem will work on the computer. Technically, these $100-$150 products are for the 7-11 age range, but more and more parents are buying them for four- and five-year-olds, an age group that's probably about ready to learn how to do e-mail. There will be a profanity filter, and parents can send Safe-Site a list of e-mail addresses from which the child can receive e-mail - so spam is not a possibility.
The safety level with these products/services is as high as with JuniorNet and its competitor-to-be, but this is text, folks, a very different experience for kids.
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