Aword of dissent. Everyone keeps going on about how bad those Tamagotchi virtual pets are for children, how children are alienated from their families and distracted from their schoolwork, and how they go into mourning when the beasts kick the bucket.
A colleague complained in this newspaper a couple of days ago that his son was blaming him for letting a virtual pet die.
And what was it he said? 'A Tamagotchi is the virtual pet only an absolute idiot would own.' Well, that's not so. Some very intelligent people own virtual pets.
The problem is they don't stay intelligent for long. Nor do they remain the owners of virtual pets for long.
Very soon it is the pet who owns them. And that's the point. It's not the children you need to worry about.
Sure, the pets all start out as kids' toys. And for a while it is a real educational experience. Junior is taught all about care and responsibility for a small, vulnerable creature, dependent on a loving human being for its every need.
