While I agree with you that this was a stupid thing for the parents to do, I think you may want to consider that much of our society is technologically ignorant. My teacher way back in elementary school used to say "you can give a monkey a calculator, but that doesn't mean he can do math." I feel much of our society is that monkey with a calculator, they know what buttons to hit to get what they want, but they do not understand how/why it works and even fewer understand the deeper implications of their actions. This isn't due to a lack of intelligence, but a lack of needing to know and a lack of interest. My guess is the parents don't think of the power of the "toy" they hand off to their kid, because to them it is just a tool of convenience and at that moment the most convenient use is to pacify their kid.