[wilsonnb]

The second best selling video game of all time is Minecraft, which was hugely popular among children and probably still is. That game is basically a blank and boring canvas to paint on.

Children with an interest in technology can purchase a raspberry pi for $5 today. They can learn javascript programming without leaving the web browser. It's not all doom and gloom because their iPads don't allow them every freedom that a Commodore 64 might.

Taking things apart and trying to understand their behavior is a natural behavior of children and always has been. Regardless of whether they have iPads or rocks, they will always find a way. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Also, it's always worth considering that most children don't have much of an interest in programming. In the 80's most children weren't at home with a C64. Most of those kids turned out fine too.

[jghjg]

It's totally different being pushed to be creative by being poor and having to fix a computer than buying a raspberry pi or enroll into a javascript course, these two things will only happen with tech parents, and only IF, there are thousands of tech parents that give ipads to their children

[wilsonnb]

There's no reason a kid without tech parents can't find out about the raspberry pi themselves and ask their parents for one. Or purchase it themselves. Just like a poor kid without tech parents in the 80s could find out about the Commodore 64 and buy a broken one and fix it, except now the computer is so cheap that there is no point in buying a broken one.

Being forced to fix things is one way to learn but it not the only way to learn.