If you were given when you were a kid a laptop or tablet (and if internet existed at the time) would you have used it to study or to look around for (choose whatever fits better) music, movies, lolcats, funny videos, maybe some p0rn and the like?
18 year old can (usually) figure out how to use Internet and technology in general to improve themselves and advance their education. Small kids not so much...
The (wrong) idea is that the tool (tablet/laptop) by sheer magic can replace guidance, if you prefer it is a form of lazyness by the teachers and/or the parents that assume that the kids will not do what they are better at (which is of course playing) 80-90% of the time (and use it for school work for the bare minimum 10-20% actually needed to get a decent vote).
Under some guidance I find the tablet or laptop an exceptionally good tool, but it is just a tool, so in itself its usage without appropriate programs and mentoring it can become worse than useless, an additional means of distraction.