Read Mayfly by Peter Watts, one of my favorite hard sf short stories that deals with a child being raised in a computer, sorta.
Also, here's the article in question in question. It's written as a sort of joke about the supposedly serious article on the same topic in daily mail which I haven't read yet.
Wait till they come up with virtual adults. Now that's going to be grim.
Oh god, virtual child abuse is going to be a fucking thing in my lifetime isn't it?
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Yes.
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Well that’s the natural endpoint of a virtual child, isn’t it?
As the article points out the cool thing about a virtual child is that it doesn't have to grow up.