The tune “Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood” may have been a rudimentary LBS app.
The kids’ show Sesame Street recently debuted the fictional iPogo–in song, of course, which has the title “There’s An App For That.” The ditty, about a pogo stick that can do so much more, is clearly meant to teach children rhyming and to increase their vocabulary–the wonders of their parents’ smart phones being just gravy.
I’m not terribly surprised; after all, a former boss’ infant daughter a few years ago used to crawl across the floor to get to his iPhone–and only his iPhone, other handsets being of no interest to the baby girl.
And there are already cell phone models geared toward small children, such as the Firefly, or various Sanyo models first developed in Japan. The colorful though rudimentary devices can be programmed to call just mom, dad, or others deemed appropriate by the child’s guardian.
Moreover, there are real software programs for grown-up phones that a tween-age kid will demand to replace his or her Firefly. These claim to offer child safety, monitoring everything from a child’s physical location to his or her text messages that may raise red flags of bullying or bad behavior. It’s LBS and censorship tools used for the greater good!
But these security measures are nothing compared to one’s toddler learning about “singing scat.”
