Children being mugged and beaten for their toys

A disturbing report states that city children are being targeted by teen hoodlums who are after their toys. Though these not any old toys like dolls or cars but blackberries, sidekicks and ipods!
http://dnainfo.com/20100729/washington-heights-inwood/police-warn-of-children-being-beaten-mugged-for-ipods-by-teens

I can understand a young kid having a basic cell phone but why does a young child need a blackberry? any comments?
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Every now and then kids in my neighborhood would get mugged for their ipods! I think kids under 15 shouldn't have these expensive gadgets to begin with - for partially this reason. They're targets!
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uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist Unfortunately we live in an age where children want all the latest gizmos and parents being pressed for time just give. I too am guilty of this crime as I bought my nine year old nephew a $200 iPod Nano last year because he kept haranguing me and I remember at that time that my dad asked him to be careful and not take it with him to the play ground.I had such a case of deja-vu when I read this news report.
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Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Kind of scary, but then so is the trend towards getting kids these kinds of gadgets.
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Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Something to consider, though, is that as a result of the technology of these gadgets and their frequent use, we apparently process information differently now than before. Kids develop very different kinds of motor skills growing up with these toys. Weird idea: that the ability to use gadgets expertly at a very early age might become a distinguishing feature between the haves and the have nots. I mean those whose parents could afford these things and those who couldn't. Kind of how braces were a generation back.
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uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish very well said.. the only difference nobody could yank braces off nor did they have interest in doing so but these gizmos are an entirely a different matter.
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DBlack 2yrs+
This is an awful thought, but more disturbing that parents let children wander around with these gadgets unsupervised.
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JenMac 2yrs+
Maybe if we just start surgically attaching the electronics to kids they won't get mugged. That'll solve everyone's problem :)
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I had a high school boyfriend once that thought chips should be implanted in everyone's brains to make them connected to the internet...
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DBlack 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist A what a better world it would be if we could all stay linked to the internet instantly without even having to click anything...like having an IV for the brain...I'm joking here...
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DBlack 2yrs+
Nicholson Baker wrote some nice articles in the New Yorker recently about playing video games with his teenage son and killing and being killed. Here's the podcast:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2010/08/09/100809on_audio_baker
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uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist and DBlack that's my idea of a perfect world..whenever I go away on holiday anywhere I need to have the internet with me .. it drives my husband batty but this is one addiction I am not giving up...
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BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I live in a neighborhood where even I wouldn't wander around flaunting my electronic devices - it would just be foolish. And none of the younger kids on my block play outside without supervision, though I'm sure it happens in some nearby places.

I think Uraniumfish has a point about the haves and the have nots, but I still think a line should be drawn somewhere. Kids do NOT need Blackberries. My parents let us use their computer and play games on it - both educational and non - but we weren't allowed to have any game consoles. I had to pay for my own cell phone in high school. I think you can develop kids' motor skills without buying them tons of crap they don't need.
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Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@DBlack Ah, Ataris. Remember them? I had geeky older cousins so my parents were influenced to buy me an Atari early on, but unlike my older cousins I HATED the stupid thing and didn't see the fun in trying to build up the motor skills to kill the spaceships or whatever. Which I guess disproves my own point, really. I had easy access to computers and gadgets growing up but didn't really take to them naturally. So I wonder what that says. Some people who are that super-proficient just have an affinity that others don't?
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Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK I agree that kids just don't need friggin Blackberries, there is definitely a line to be drawn.
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uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish and BroadwayBK My point exactly what is this world coming to? A friend who is haranguing me to get on the Blackberry bandwagon for BBM has just bought one for her 12 year old and is soon going to get one for her 8 year old ..and coincidentally I just read an article about the dangers of cell phone radiation in July issue of Vogue. Wonder if she has seen it yet for she has a subscription to the magazine as well.
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BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl Yeah - they say that the radiation may be especially dangerous for young children.

@Uraniumfish Fo' sho'.
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Uraniumfish 2yrs+
I've been reading a book called "Red Sky in the Morning" by Speth about the unprecedented amounts of toxins that are in all of us as a result of the last twenty years' worth of world pollution, so at this point cell phone radiation may be the least of our worries.
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You guys should come (visit me in) Tbilisi, where my new "base" is. Georgia is still a primarily agricultural country, and the new infrastructure that's just really starting to happen now is all "green" (my mother works in development there...), The result is the most gorgeous clean air, the most delicious food I've ever tasted (tomatoes redder on the inside than the outside, peaches the size of huge grapefruits!). Not everywhere in the world is spoiled!
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DBlack 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist Sounds like paradise! Does this mean that the developing world is able to just circumvent the phase of development where they pollute and deplete their own resources, and just go directly to "green" technology? Wow.
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uptowngirl 2yrs+
@DBlack I dont know whether they circumvent it or just stick to age old relatively 'green' methods.. I am reminded of a time when I was buying super expensive organic Pink Lady apples at Fairway on 72nd and Broadway. The check out clerk happened to be a Bangladeshi lady who asked me why was I interested in paying $1 for an organic apple when apples grown in our countries were all organic anyway. I asked her what she meant and she said that in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries cow manure has been used as a fertilizer for thousands of years and it was not a new fangled concept. The products from such kind of farming were being touted as organic and sold at exorbitant prices in NYC and elsewhere and she thought it was complete madness.. I was gobsmacked to say the least at the end of the lecture but bought the apples anyway.
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