The current generation of kids are being called Net Generation, because they are the first to grow up with the Internet, with no memory of a time when Google didn't exist to answer every question known to man. (Was there really such a time? How did we ever survive!?)



But they could just as easily be called the Text Generation or the iPod Generation, because these kids have no memory of a time without cell phones or downloadable music. Show a kid one of those mixed tapes you have in your attic and they'll call you ancient. Or rather, they'll text it to you while listening to their iPod while logging in to MySpace or Webkinz World.



As kids are plugging in and logging on and IMing earlier and earlier, parents are being put confounding position of having to decide when enough is enough, or when, just maybe, an iPod is just the right present to buy a 4 year old for her birthday.



On one hand, every little kid should have an iPod. Just think how quiet restaurants would be. And airplanes. And your drive to anywhere, from anywhere. On the other hand, no little kid should have an iPod. Just think of all the ways it adds to their burgeoning sense of entitlement and consumerism. Yet according to a recent study, "31% of children aged between 6 and 10 in the States own MP3 players, with over half that figure, 54%, owning an iPod, with the nano topping the popularity chart." And the market for kid oriented Mp3 players is rapidly increasing.





The primary concern many parents have about Mp3 players and little kids is volume. Only iPods come with a volume control ...