geekosystem

How much time do you spend staring at a screen  on a daily basis? Probably not as long as your kids will, if there's anything to a new study released today, which found that kids in the United Kingdom will spend an average of 1/4 of their lives watching a screen of some sort. If that seems a little low to you -- and it does to us -- keep in mind that number isn't counting hours spent at work, where watching videos of cats being cute or people hurting themselves or cute cats hurting people is most prevalent, meaning that the real hours spent watching a TV, computer or phone screen will register somewhere around "all of them."

Instead of the usual cheap plastic toy, for the next five weeks McDonald's is offering children in the U.K. books with their Happy Meals. That probably means there are a lot of disappointed British children, but for the faction of nerdy little Britons who love books as much as we do, it's a banner day under the golden arches. During the promotion, McDonald's intends to give out one book with every Happy Meal they sell. If that's true, it will inadvertently make them the largest children's book distributor in the United Kingdom.

In an editorial piece published yesterday on TechCrunch titled "The Gift of Online Privacy," Cyan Banister calls for parents to think twice before sharing every milestone in their child's life on the Internet. As the title implies, she considers privacy one of the greatest gifts a parent can give to their child. I disagree. As proof, the above image isn't some picture I pulled off the Internet. That's the 20-week ultrasound of my daughter. I'll post a photograph of her in about six weeks when she's born, because I think photographs make a better gift than privacy.

The lottery -- or as you may know it, "taxes for people who don't think they pay enough taxes yet" -- is a fun game, and an only slightly less effective means of losing money than, say, setting it ablaze in a large pile or just flushing it directly down the toilet. It's also easier on your ventilation and sewage systems than those options, which concludes our thorough summary of all of the virtues of playing the lottery. Oh, wait, there's one more -- lottery tickets make fun holiday gifts for children that you have forgotten to buy holiday gifts for, and only might doom them to a lifetime of shattered dreams, broken promises, and horses who just couldn't quite keep it going down the stretch. According to a report issued today by the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors at McGill University, getting lottery tickets as holiday gifts can be a gateway into problem gambling for children. Even if it doesn't, though, best case scenario, it's teaching that kid to do a staggeringly stupid thing, as in play the lottery, so maybe don't do that, just on principle.

Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) issued a report titled Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing (cringe-inducing emphasis theirs). They surveyed apps available from both iOS and Android platforms to see how available things like privacy practices were prior to downloading, and it's probably not shocking that their findings were disappointing, so the FTC told everyone involved to straighten up. Today the FTC released the findings of a follow-up study to see how things are improving. In short: They're not. In fact, the findings of the new report are even worse than the old one. Stay classy, app developers.

Pirates that also happen to be children might have just been given a free pass. After a 2007 case saw the parents of a then 13-year-old pirate get stuck with a bill of 5,380 euros for lack of parental supervision, the duo appealed on the grounds that they had told their son it was illegal. They argued that, by informing, they'd met their parental obligations. Yesterday, Germany's Federal court agreed and dismissed the case entirely.

It's good news, bad news time again, everyone! The good news? Five-year-old kids can be very generous and inclined to share their toys. The bad news? They're only likely to do so if they know they're being watched. So anyone who was still holding onto that dream wherein we're all just naturally good people who are inclined to help one another out: You can let that one die. On the plus side, the rest of us will finally stop laughing at you. Y'know, to your face anyway.

This video, teaching us all about fear in children, teaches us something about fear in grown adults, in that this thing is pure terror. Enjoy.

When you're a kid, you don't quite grasp the finer points of subtle implication. Or maybe you do, and you use your parents' assumptions otherwise to make them increasingly uneasy with your progressively less subtle suggestions that they are completely at your mercy, now and forever, and you are not to be angered. You know, testing the depths of their denial. Or maybe Michelle here just thought she'd remind her parents that life is a gift, oblivious of the creepy undertones. It has to be the second one, right? Yeah. Right?

Adorable! Filmed at the San Diego Zoo. (via BoYT)