Wireless Babysitting with VCAST?

An interesting headline caught my eye this morning whilst perusing some of the news that had graced my RSS reader.....Bert and Ernie Go Wireless.

As the unofficially official wireless blogger at TMCnet, I had to investigate further as to why the beloved Sesame Street characters have caught up with the technology world. VCAST, a video service provided by Verizon Wireless, is now offering short clips of Sesame Street to Verizon Wireless VCAST subscribers in addition to the already offered CNN, ESPN and weather.com.

Market intelligence advisory firm IDC believes that "children's programming over wireless handsets is a rapidly evolving area that deserves fuller industry attention and also highlights additional industry issues and needs."

I'm no market intelligence analyst, but I don't see how investigating children's programming over wireless handsets is going to be the next big cahuna in wireless technology. Unless of course you feature those wonderfully poetic martians (you remember, right? "yip yip yip yip uh-huh, uh-huh...raaaaadio!). In the release, it states that "'Electronic Babysitting' is a potentially strong value proposition for wireless video offerings to parents of very young children."

This worries me on two levels.

First - no electronic device should every replace a live human being for child care. Call me old fashioned, but honestly? Not so much.

Second - Recently, my fiance and I had dinner with another couple and their 2 year old child who, when looking through my purse discovered my cell phone and decided that it was hers to play with. Correct me if I'm wrong, but young children aren't exactly experts when it comes to things with buttons. It was adorable, no doubt to see the young one fill up with excitement over the little contraption that lit up and behold, took pictures. I showed her how I could take a picture of her dad, which then prompted her to grab the phone and, well, not successfully take a photo.

"I have offered my own VCAST phone and service to parents of young children at airports and on airplanes, with a near 100% success rate at tears and tantrum avoidance," says Scott Ellison, program director, Wireless and Mobile Communications at IDC. He noted that in each instance, not only the child was immediately absorbed in the VCAST video clips, but more striking was the positive reaction of the parents.

VCAST clips last no longer than 2-3 minutes. So what happens when the 2-3 minutes are up?

Maybe VCAST should start offering feature length films, such as Shark Tale or Sponge Bob Square Pants.

I'm sure that would be one heck of a service bill.

How about investing in a portable DVD player if you really need an electronic babysitter for long trips or other outings?