Virtual Environments for Children and Teens

Today’s children and teens are technology savvy. Information and communication technology (ICT) is the prevalent mode of communication among them, with 75 percent of 12 to 17 year olds owning cell phones, and text messaging at an incredible rate of more than 3000 messages per month [1]. This new generation is referred to as ‘net savvy’ youth [2], Google generation [3], and generation M, for Media, MySpace, or the Millenials [4] among other titles. The most common term, however, is the digital natives; those born after 1989, who may process information “different from their predecessors” [5]. The digital natives do much more than text messaging; they live in the digital world. Whereas most adults are attached to their physical material artifacts, cherishing their hardcopy books and DVDs, the digital natives live in digital worlds where they own virtual artifacts, which are more than just digital music and streaming movies. They use social networks (SNS) to create personal spaces to store artifacts such as currency and familial possession as a means of selfexpression [6].