Kids experiment with 'video playdates'

At first, Ella didn't really understand Skype.

Don't get all tech-elitist on her, though. She was only 1.

Back then, Ella would do silly things like try to hand her grandmother stickers through the computer screen during video chats, says her mother, Robin Riggs.

But now, at age 2, Ella has come a long way. She understands now that her grandparents are five hours away, looking at her through a webcam, Riggs said. "She knows the noise the computer makes when Mimi and Papa are calling," she said. "She runs over to it excited."

In fact, Ella's gotten so good with this technology that she's embarking on a new level of video-conference sophistication:

Skype playdates with toddler peers.

"We've called her cousins a couple times that actually live down the street," Riggs said, adding that the weather was bad at the time in Wilmington, North Carolina, where they live, so a trip down the block would have been more difficult than dialing them up online.

As it turns out, Ella is something of a technological trail blazer. As parents get busier and kids get more familiar with video-conferencing technology, the idea of a "video playdate" is gaining nascent acceptance in tech-enabled corners of America.

While it's somewhat common for young children to conduct online video chats with adult family members, the idea of kids playing with each other via remote conferencing on laptops and TVs appears to be new, and hasn't gained mainstream acceptance yet.

The trend comes with a number of potential complications. Young kids don't always understand how the cameras work. They sometimes veer out of the screen without warning, confusing their digital pals. It's sometimes hard to hold their interest in the presence of real-world distractions. And kids who chat via Skype are treading into new psychological territory.