Games and gizmos for a smarter school year

Not all electronic games turn kids into couch potatoes. From literacy games to tween-friendly netbooks, here is the latest high-tech gear worth buying to get your child ahead this fall.

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After Dora uproar, Nick and Mattel soothe moms

When toy maker Mattel, working with Nickelodeon, announced earlier this month that a "tween" version of Nick's beloved "Dora the Explorer" cartoon character would be unveiled in the fall, the response was overwhelming ... overwhelmingly negative.

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Study: Tween Girls at Risk for Fatness

As if being a tween is not hard enough, scientists now call the years between 9 and 12 a time when girls are especially at risk of getting fat.

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10 Is the New 15 As Kids Grow Up Faster

Zach Plante is close with his parents — he plays baseball with them and, on weekends, helps with work in the small vineyard they keep at their northern California home. Lately, though, his parents have begun to notice subtle changes in their son. Among other things, he's announced that he wants to grow his hair longer — and sometimes greets his father with "Yo, Dad!"

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Recent studies have revealed that women who use vibrators are healthier -- and sexually happier -- than women who don't. Finally, the stigma of the sinful sex toy is fading and women can hold their Rabbits and Pocket Rockets proud.

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About 250,000 people entered the LG National Texting Championship, which concluded Tuesday. The winner, you will find it difficult to accept, was a 15-year-old girl. Her name is Kate Moore. She is from Iowa.

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Seattle is thick with vampires. The pasty, bloodsucking undead congregate at Gasworks Park, hold meetings in the Underground, hang from the Space Needle and lurk behind the Fremont Troll.

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The Challenges of "Growing Up Online" (Review)

I tuned into the PBS documentary "Growing Up Online" last night on Frontline for two reasons. As a member of Generation X, I'm just on the outskirts of this technologically suave generation and am striving to keep up with them.

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Taboo TV/Movie Hijinks and Your Childhood

I just finished reading the Dennis Hensley's commentary on MSNBC about how kids today, with the help of DVDs, video iPods and YouTube, can see anything and everything.

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Look around. The 35-going-on-12 woman is everywhere. Man-child Syndrome—the affliction that causes thirtysomething guys to cling to adolescence—may be rampant, but lately it's women who are taking the lead in regressing.

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Teen and adolescent girls have long used fashion as a social weapon. In 1944, Eleanor Estes wrote "The Hundred Dresses," a book about a Polish girl who is made fun of for wearing the same shabby dress to school each day.

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Clubpenguin.com was created by parent for children. Creating a safe and scripted enviroment in which children can build a profile, play games and chat with other members.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- This past spring, 10-year-old Adam Young joined other tweens on Club Penguin, playing games, throwing virtual snowballs and chatting with fellow kids who appear onscreen as plump cartoon penguins.

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Well before they experience puberty, children today are deeply immersed in the dirty laundry of celebrities — their eating disorders, bouts with drinking and drugs, and run-ins with the law (and one another).

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.....There's something undeniably disconcerting about seeing teen and preteen girls dressed to emulate their idols like Britney Spears—decked out in butt-grazing mini skirts and tight, belly-baring T-shirts.

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Kajeet, the Bethesda, Maryland start-up that provided Rachel with the Nokia 6165i as one of 3,000 volunteer "beta testers" for a new service aimed at kids, developed in large part from input by kids.

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As if being a tween is not hard enough, scientists now call the years between 9 and 12 a time when girls are especially at risk of getting fat.

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My Ode to CBGBs.

As CBGB's finally closes its overly stickered and sticky doors we have been bombarded with the usual "End of an Era" propaganda. This is the part where many of you will start to plot my demise. You are free to hate what I have to say but I'm going to say it just the same.

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Survey on Today's Teens

A recent survey of tweens, teens, and young adults shows that the percent considering an act illegal drops from 98% for stealing a CD/DVD to 80% for buying a bootleg CD/DVD to 75% for downloading unauthorized music or videos to 35% for copying a friend's CD/DVD.

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Three years ago, Nickelodeon was getting all the headlines with its animated hits 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'The Fairly OddParents.' Year to date, Nickelodeon, which is available in 90 million homes, is still the number one network among tweens (9- to 14-year-olds) in total …

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