Some grand claims have been made about the impact of new media on children's lives. Like the idea of childhood itself, new technology is often invested with our most intense fantasies and fears. It holds out the promise of a better future, while simultaneously provoking anxieties about a fundamental break with the past. In this scenario, children are perceived both as the avant-garde of media users and as the ones who are most at risk from new developments. Childhood therefore provides a revealing lens through which many broader aspects of new media can be more clearly seen. This chapter focuses on children's uses of new media (particularly computers) in the context ...