iPhone Games for Toddlers?

Getting a little bored with your dolls and toy cars? Need something to do while you ride in the shopping cart with Dad? Now you can play one of several toddler-friendly games on your iPhone, just released by Seattle-based software company Jackson Fish Market. That's right, now toddlers can stare blankly at a tiny screen while looking utterly bored with the real world, just like Mom and Dad!

TechCrunch reported on the software launch, a collection of 99-cent games under the "Hippo Hooray!" moniker, which cover subjects such as shapes, colors and letters. Despite objections from some parents, who voiced their disapproval below the article (more on that later), they sound innocuous enough for little tykes, as TechCrunch explains:

"Gameplay is very basic, consisting primarily of a child's voice commanding you to 'touch red' or 'touch the letter R' depending on which game you're playing.  If you choose the right answer, you're rewarded with the announcer saying things like 'Super cool!' and 'Great Job!' Get enough right, and you’re treated to a Hippo Hooray fireworks show."

Because who has time to actually encourage their own children? But seriously, as the father of a two-and-a-half year-old myself, I certainly see the value in having another option for "pacifying" an unruly or otherwise restless toddler when you're trying to get something done.

Still, the mere existence of these toddler-appropriate (?) games provoked outrage below the TechCrunch story, including this comment from "Elliot":

"Hey TechCrunch… You might be interested to know that research has proven that so-called interactive multimedia for children inhibits healthy development of babies and children. Of course companies that sell so-called children’s software such as Disney have a fiduciary obligation to disagree."

Good point, and I generally agree -- but, as I stated above, it's really helpful to have an additional toddler activity handy, just in case you might need it. And if you have toddlers, you know exactly what I mean.

But it's a slippery slope.

Photo courtesy of Eguirald, via Wikimedia Commons