Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
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.
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Perhaps it's a cultural thing but why would kids have a problem to ask their parents to pay for the books they have chosen? Such a conflict will only arise if parents believe that they have to monitor their kids' reading choices very strictly. Once they are old enough that their reading choice may be too risque for their parents' liking they probably know where to get the books for free on some sharing site or on an USB stick from some friends at school anyway.