This volume brings together researchers from twelve countries - Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. We present new findings about the diffusion and significance of new media and information technologies among children and young people. This volume was inspired by parallels between the arrival in the family home of television in the 1950s and the present-day arrival of new media. Today, similar questions are being asked and similar hopes and fears expressed. On the other hand, much has changed and is still changing.
Some issues are familiar, being revisited as each new medium is introduced.
Others are new. Empirical research is needed to understand the balance between the opportunities and dangers of new media. This allows us to ask about the similarities and differences in children and young people's media environments within and between European countries. It also allows us to relate the similarities and differences in media use to cross-national differences in family structure, education system, or civic culture, and so forth. Comparative work is not lightly undertaken, and this volume aims also to illuminate the comparative research process itself.