Like any gadget freak, Katie Erb loves playing with her tech toys. She surfs the Web, listens to music on an iPod, and takes photos with a digital camera. She's a total cell phone hound, too-one time, she dialed her mother's office long distance from Germany, leaving her own rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the answering machine.
 
If that last part sounds strange, it would probably help knowing that Katie Erb is four years old.
 
"On some level we know this kind of stuff is luck, but it was pretty amazing she was able to reach the right number on my cell phone," said Kelly Phillips Erb, Katie's mother.
 
Amazing? Perhaps, but definitely not unique. According to Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review, there are more tech toys on the market now than ever before. Buckleitner said this is partly because microprocessors, small color screens, and microphones are much cheaper to install in toys than they were just a few years ago.
 
Those price decreases, coupled with our ever-growing reliance on computers and various gadgets for work and play, mean that kids are being introduced to tech tools and toys at increasingly early ages.
 
Some parents wonder if this preponderance of techie toys, coupled with kids' easy access to computers and TV, is helping or harming their development. As it is, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that parents wait until their children reach the age of two before giving them any screen time, and then should limit and monitor TV watching and computer use.
 
"You learn language by being talked to and talking back, so the basic idea of limiting screen time until after age two is probably a pretty good one," said AAP spokesman and retired pediatrician Gilbert Fuld.
 
Though opinions vary, the general consensus from parents and experts seems to be that tech toys and tools are best introduced to and used by children in moderation.
 
"The tech itself is neither good nor bad. It's the content that you want to pay attention to," said John Murray, a professor of developmental psychology at Kansas State University. Murray is also a visiting scholar at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston.
 
Murray agrees with the AAP's stance on waiting until children are older than two years old to introduce them to technology. He's seen the popular Baby Einstein videos, he said, and found them "kind of mind-numbing." But good things can come from exposing children to technology, he said.
 
Buckleitner suggested parents ask themselves what value the toy has, and what kind of experience the child will walk away from it with that they didn't have before. "I think that the main thing is that it's all about balance, and there's really not a lot to be afraid of. It's not like it's a snake or a poison that can hurt or kill or maim," he said.
 
Phillips Erb, a mother of three, thinks moderation is good, too, though she does believe having technology in her children's lives will help them in an increasingly tech-oriented society.
 
"I was really hesitant to embrace tech as a kid because I didn't have the exposure to it when I was younger, so it made me nervous," Phillips Erb said.
 
Her three children might not be as keen on the whole moderation thing. Katie and her two-year-old sister, Amy, like playing with electronics like their toy laptop and an iPod that their mom loads up with sleepy-time playlists. When their father goes on a business trip, they can say "hi" to him via iChat or the family's webcam.
 
"I want my kids to view it as part of our lives," Phillips Erb said of technology.
 
With her oldest already dialing internationally, it looks like they already do.