|
Children's literature can't really make the jump until teenagers can buy their own ebooks. Young kids, who expect their parents to provide them with books, can sometimes use ereaders (of various sorts, depending on item durability and child's carefulness), but they'll give them up as soon as they realize their reading choices are limited to (1) public domain classics, (2) weird free self-pub & indie books by authors they've never heard of, and (3) books their parents hand-pick for them.
The vast majority of ebook sales sites require users to be old enough to enter a legal contract. Or, of course, the kids can lie, with or without parental consent. I am nonplussed at the idea of teen readers getting used to the idea that they have to sneak past a TOS to get access to books. They can't even legally use library ebooks... OverDrive requires users to be adults.
Part of why kids have no problems with downloading MP3s and games? They can't buy them. There is no kids-shop-here online store of any sort. The transactions all require a credit card or similar financial arrangement--and most don't take gift cards, which are the only easily-accessible cards most kids have.
|