

Three months later, a different reality has emerged: My kids have barely touched the software designed for creative expression. They prefer our five-year-old PC because it's easier to play simple games and watch videos on the Web.

WSJ's Kevin Delaney bought the XO laptop for his kids, but he's found they prefer the family's PC. His son Jack discusses what he likes to do with computers.

The experience has reminded me of the hazards of projecting expectations for your children's happiness or development onto any prospective purchase. But even more, it has made me realize that the Web is a defining media experience of my kids' childhoods in the way that TV and videogames were for me. Any technology aimed at kids needs to be able to deliver the richest experiences available on the Web or face an uphill battle in winning the attention of this browser generation.

For the Child in Your Life

The computer I bought for my kids was a little green-and-white laptop called the XO, distributed by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation. The foundation and the device are the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's famed Media Lab. The foundation's goal is to design and distribute inexpensive laptops to millions of children in poor countries, to expand their access to knowledge and education.

The XO was marketed to U.S. consumers for a limited time last year through a program called "Give One Get One," where you could get your own machine and have a second one sent to a child in the developing world for a total of $399. "Get one for the child in your life," pitched one commercial for the promotion, which distributed over 60,000 computers to people in the U.S. and Canada. The XO is also making its way into some U.S. schools, including those in Birmingham, Ala.

The machines were primarily designed for kids in the developing world who wouldn't otherwise have access to any computer at all, not children like mine who take high-speed Internet access for granted. The XO includes wireless technology that lets devices communicate with each other without needing Wi-Fi or other Internet access. That allows for impromptu networking between laptops even in places where modern data infrastructure isn't available.

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But it does have features that might make it appealing to kids anywhere -- and that made me think it would be terrific for my children. The XO's software interface is designed to be easy for kids to figure out, and it comes loaded with built-in applications, such as the writing, animation and music programs that got me excited.

My two children beamed when my wife and I gave it to them. They often see us working on our laptops at home, and my 4-year-old daughter, Kamilla, had adopted an older, nonfunctioning MacBook laptop for tapping out imaginary emails. "This is our computer," said Kamilla with pride when we gave the XO to her and her brother, Jack, 7.

They proceeded to customize it with their favorite colors and typed their names into its word-processing program. They jostled with each other for prime position at the keyboard. The XO interface is unfamiliar for Windows users, but my children caught on quickly to the strip of program icons on the bottom of the screen and a circle with the icons for the applications they were currently using.

Jack zoomed between different programs and the main home screen using buttons cleverly placed near the keyboard for that purpose. The XO's keys are kid-size, and the action of opening and closing its screen, which involves swinging out two wireless antennas, was something my children enjoyed doing repeatedly.

Generally, we limit the kids to one or two hours on the computer on weekend days. And at first, they were eager to spend that time on the XO. But they soon became less and less interested in the laptop. Once Jack packed it up in a briefcase when he was playing at being a grown-up -- but he didn't actually turn it on. When the kids wanted to use a computer, which they do mostly to play simple Web-based games, they turned instead to our old desktop PC.

My expectations for how my children would use the XO didn't account for just how much their own needs and desires might be different from those of developing-world kids who had never played with Neopets or watched Pink Panther cartoons on YouTube -- or, for that matter, didn't already have four other computers in their household.


An OLPC spokesman says that it had seen some of these issues in the U.S., though the sites should work once Flash software is installed. "The thing is, we've put a lot of focus on getting these laptops to kids in the developing world and have focused on supporting them," he says. The spokesman says the XO was designed to interact with other XO laptops in the vicinity.

There weren't any other XOs in our neighborhood, which eliminated some of the potential for fun. And, to be fair, there are some interesting multimedia applications that come with the XO. It has a built-in Webcam-like video camera that can record video, still images and audio. Over Christmas, my children and their cousins huddled around the laptop to record videos of themselves telling jokes and stories. Another program they dabbled with is called TamTam, which provides a simple interface for composing music.

I could have persisted in shepherding my kids through those applications, the things that first got me excited about the XO. Also, if they were older, they might have more interest in the potential for word processing on the laptop.

One other issue: The XO wasn't as simple to use as I thought it would be. I had to intervene more than I expected to handle technical details, such as configuring the Wi-Fi settings and reinstalling the laptop's software.

So Easy on the Web

In contrast, even though the Web wasn't designed for children, the browser is remarkably user-friendly, for kids and grown-ups alike. With very little instruction, kids are able to quickly move from one online activity to another. They don't expect to have to wait for new programs to install or, just as important, parents to intercede to get them there. It allows them to be independent, to explore on their own without a lot of technical hassle.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by my kids' Web focus. After all, I cover the high-stakes battle between Google and Microsoft, which centers in part on this issue. Google is trying to move as much of what we use computers for -- things such as email or word processing -- as it can to the Web. Microsoft sees a future where there's a mix of software and such services. Without my realizing it, my kids have already taken sides.

And in fact, my behavior isn't that much different. Part of my own rationalization for buying a new iMac G5 computer a few years ago was that I could use it for music and video projects, thanks to its GarageBand and iMovie software. Now that I have it, what do I do? Mostly, I just browse the Web.

—Mr. Delaney is a senior special writer in The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau.

Write to Kevin J. Delaney at kevin.delaney@wsj.com