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.
I'm recommending the latest Digivices, the Digimon Vital Bracelet. It's a cheap smartwatch combined with one of those Tamagotchi-esque digivice toys that you can raise and battle Digimon with Pokemon Home-style via your phone.