Parent-child 'tech gap'

Fortunately for kids, tech gadgets from phones to laptops are for safety and productivity as much as communications and entertainment. That makes them a lot easier for parents to buy for their kids. Parents look at how "PCs with broadband connections can be used to research papers on the Internet, write term papers on word processors and run a wide variety of educational software," RedNova.com reports. But parents need to be aware (if they're not already) that a connected computer can be any device a kid wants it to be, including a phone and gameplayer, and they need to know what sort of device it is, when, and if kids actually use it as a productivity tool. The other part of all this that's interesting is that tech gadgets are not just tools to *use*, but also tools of self-expression. Teenagers are just as like to care about what the device looks like - and whether they can customize its look - as about what they can do with it.