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The immersive pull of tech toys can also create a virtual nursery sufficiently diverting to kick the latest Barbie firmly into touch.

“It keeps them occupied without you having to come and help,” Osman says. “If I wanted to crack on with a bit of work, I’d just put Toby on the computer. For two hours, I won’t know he’s there: he’s as quiet as a mouse. It’s the way forward. He will sit and concentrate, and normally his attention span is limited. I couldn’t take him to the cinema, and he’ll only read a couple of pages of a book.”

Two-year-old Rio even stops crying when given a games console to play with. The “e-dummy” idea has not earned universal plaudits, however, and some experts express concern that young minds are failing to develop true concentration and social skills.

“Children may be mesmerised, but it’s a different sort of focus,” says Joan Almon, from Alliance for Childhood, a US association of health and education experts that campaigns against a screen-centred life. “It can be more like hypnosis than a deep act of concentration.

“We’re finding young people are not nearly as creative as previously, and that they are growing up without the ability to work with others. One of the real shortcomings of a life spent immersed in technology is that it is often very isolated. Even if you communicate, it tends to be at a distance, by text or e-mail. The young conduct a third fewer face-to-face conversations than in the previous generation.”

Recent research into the side effects of technology suggests that living inside an electronic cocoon is enough to drive you to digital distraction. One study conducted by psychologists at King’s College London found that sending e-mails and text messages knocks 10 points off a person’s IQ, twice the impact of smoking marijuana. Another study claimed that the constant demands made by a flurry of simultaneous texts, e-mails and calls leads to serious attention disorder. ()

Many young advocates of technology disagree about the effects on their brain power, especially when it comes to the thorny issue of homework.

“Computers make me feel more brainy,” says Ayesha Raja, 9, from Ilford. “When you go to Google, you can type in what you’re searching for and all the information is on the computer screen. I search for my geography and history homework.”

The web-monitoring agency Nielsen NetRatings clocks half a million two- to five-year-olds regularly going online in the UK, joined by a further 2.3m aged 6 to 11. Raja is one of the new breed who spends more time online than on the sofa. “If I could choose between a computer and a television, I would choose a computer, because I like to learn about stuff on the internet, about saving the environment and saving energy,” she says.

While the debate rages on, the young encounter technology at ever earlier ages. Dr Lydia Plowman, an academic at Stirling University conducting a two-year study into the habits of very small children, says that it is not unusual to find three-year-olds who can use interactive television, DVDs and talk on webcams to far-off relatives. One three-year-old boy could play a game designed for adults on the BBC website. Another could turn a CD player on and off, adjust the volume and fast-forward. She argues that early-age engagement with technology can have a positive impact both on learning and on talking to peers and parents.

“Of course, children of that age can’t read, but they know the symbols,” Plowman says. “Toys such as pretend laptops can be quite important because they help get children used to the idea of using technology, rather than it being something special that you’re not allowed to touch. Even toy handheld devices — cameras, mobiles, laptops — offer mobility, which is very important for children at this age because they can move around and show what they have to other people. It increases social interaction.”

The new generation is showing its impatience. Nick Cleverley, an 11-year-old whizz, has proved such a triumph at his new school in Tipperary, Ireland, that he has become the equivalent of a one-boy IT department.

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