April Jim Steyer, founding father of Common Sense Media, a children’s advocacy institution, badgered contributors of America’s Congress to adjust the apps children are the users of online. Their response on Capitol Hill stunned him. “We already regulated Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and PBS Kids,” they answered, referring to policies for television enacted within the Nineties and 2000s (with his help).
They had apparently missed a series of new scandals: kids uncovered to violence and pornography, their information being collected, pedophiles lurking in feedback sections of movies depicting kids. “We’re changing at warp pace,” Mr. Steyer says, “and we’re nevertheless speaking approximately ‘Sesame Street.
Not for much longer. Members of Congress are drafting more than one payment to alter how net structures treat youngsters. Britain has proposed child-safety guidelines, inclusive of prohibitions on capabilities designed to preserve customers hooked. From July, it’s far expected to require porn sites to bar users under 18; MindGeek, which owns many salacious sites, wants to use an age-verification registry to comply (and, in doing so, make it simpler to rate grownup visitors for content material). In Delhi, politicians are considering policies that might forestall the records of absolutely everyone under 18 from being gathered.
The EU bars tech giants from garnering facts and focused on commercials for youngsters. Last 12 months, California adopted comparable privacy protections that still forbid tech businesses from ignoring users’ actual age. Most of those provisions will be enforced with heavy penalties. If you’re planning to attend a kid’s birthday party, or if Christmas is around the corner, you may need to start thinking about finding the best gifts for age-appropriate kids. Below we have listed a summary of the two best gift ideas for kids aged between one and eight years old to take a lot of the hard work out of the selection process.
Best Gifts for 1-year-olds:
The two best gifts for kids of this age are Plush Toys and a Bucket and Spade. The important features to look for in Plush Toys are softness, short fur, flashing lights, special sounds, and preferably a big smile with engaging eyes on the toy. The talking Elmo is often the most popular of the plush toys but is expensive. In terms of a bucket and spade, go for a small set at this age with a short handle on the spade, so they can dig little holes and build sandcastles. If sand is flying in every direction from the spade, the kit will usually have a small rake in it as well, which you can swap for the spade. A bucket and spade are among the best value gifts you can buy for kids, typically costing under $10.
Best Gifts for 2-year-olds:
The two best gifts for a two-year-old are a Kid’s Car and a Bubble Machine. A small plastic kid’s car where children can open the door, sit in and push around with their feet is a big winner. Hopefully, there is also a horn for kids to toot, a key to start the car, and a petrol cap when they feel it’s time to refuel. Kids will have a year or two of fun with this, whereas many other toys for this age group are played with for only hours.
The second idea of a Bubble Machine is an inexpensive present (<$20) that gets lots of kids active chasing bubbles around the outdoors. Most kids will like to pick up a bat or stick for extra reach to swat the higher bubbles. Just make sure you have plenty of bubble mixture as it can run out quickly. Great for kids’ parties, Christmas events as well.
