My wife's clock radio starts blaring at 6:30 every morning just as the kids are slowly stirring from their slumber. The news of the day is usually tame -- weather, politics, business -- but some mornings, it's all tragedy. Hours of it. Tragedy so plainly wrought that I wonder if I shouldn't throw the clock radio out the window.

So how do we talk to kids about this stuff? How do we hide the news when it comes at us from all angles? How do we keep a plugged-in generation in the dark? Should we?

Imagine never hearing your kids' voices -- ever. Texas mom Dawn Keim has been going deaf for most of her adult life because of a genetic condition. And hearing aides don't work for her. She's gotten by through lip-reading, but until recently, she'd been living in silence.

Dawn had never heard her 8-year-old son's voice. Well, she says she'd always heard his voice in her head, but never in real life. So imagine how thrilled she must have been to get a breakthrough procedure: A cochlear implant. Finally, she'd get to hear her son's voice for the first time!

It's clear why kids enjoy video games so much. The bottom line, they are super fun. But there is so much more to the experience than cool graphics. They can be beneficial in so many ways. In fact, gaming can actually help make your kids better students in school. Here's how.

About a year ago I wrote a mother-in-law-nup (MIL-nup), so that one could comfortably hand their sweet boy over to some son-stealing Jezebel. Clearly, I'm still bitter, but it made me realize that there should be "nups" for lots of things.

Like email and social networking. I'm not talking about the spammers who seem quite certain I have a small penis, I'm lonely, I could use Prozac and Cialis, and I should get said drugs from Canada.

No, I can forgive the Internets, but what I cannot forgive is the annoying emails and Facebook requests from my supposed friends and family. You guys are on shaky ground, which is why I've written this "e-nup," and I say everyone signs!

I hereby decree that:

It is a high tech world. I love it and I don’t know how we survived before everyone had access to cells phones and the Internet. Honestly, if you tried to take either away from me today, I’d probably fight you to the death and you’d still have to pry my iPhone out of my cold dead hands.

As we advance technologically, it's becoming the norm to see toddler and certainly elementary school aged children on laptops, iPods, iPads, iPhones and the internet, usually playing educational games or watching cartoons so that their parents can keep them occupied. I have no problem with this. Our girls have DS’s and now they have Nabi tablets , MP3 players and we own every educational game system available since the girls were toddlers. They do homework on the laptop and know their way around technology ... like every other kid we know.

So this is terrifying: Over 200 people have been arrested in a child exploitation ring that included 123 child victims. The arrests were part of a five-week international child pornography investigation; 110 of the victims were found and rescued in the U.S. The other victims were found in six other countries.

As awful as it is to know that this operation was so large and widespread -- it's such a relief to know they've all been caught! And thank goodness those children have been rescued. Child pornography is one the most difficult crimes for law enforcement to grapple with. This is a major breakthrough in the battle against child exploitation.

A woman walked into a Wal-Mart and tried to buy several iPads with her EBT card. Twice. Food stamps for iPads. Tracy Browning, a 38-year-old Louisville, Kentucky woman, allegedly attempted to purchase the Apple tablets using an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, then assaulted store employees and took off with the merchandise when it didn’t work. She was arrested when she tried to do the same thing at another Wal-Mart a few hours later.

According to Louisville police, Browning had previously been banned from all Wal-Mart locations for other incidents with the discount retailer. She’s been charged with robbery, shoplifting, and trespassing, and has been booked into the Louisville Metro jail. No word on what those prior incidences were, or if they involved theft or fancy electronics.

I can't tell you how many of my 8-year old daughter's friends have iPod Touches or even cell phones. And not surprisingly, she's been begging me for one of her own.

While I can see circumstances why some younger kids might need a cell phone, I'm pretty sure mine does not. And I'll be honest, most of the kids around her that have one don't need one either.