Exploiting kids as subjects does sound repulsive (although using them as subjects with parents consent is perfectly ok for scientific purposes, e.g. see Alison

Exploiting kids as subjects does sound repulsive (although using them as subjects with parents consent is perfectly ok for scientific purposes, e.g. see Alison Gopnik's fantastic work and her TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think?...). My suggestion was rather to use this group, which would be tiny as you point out, as a simple "sounding board", e.g. to develop new ways of teaching young children programming. Another way would be to get their ideas and keep them in the loop for development of new products targeting kids. Toy companies, such as Lego, routinely employ kids to test new toys but I think very few involve them in the creation phase.