Twenty-four seven on the computers' : girls, ICTs and risk

This paper explores how girls take up, disrupt, and disavow interest in ICTs in their lives. It examines questions of access and of social risk in relation to computers in the home and how these are nuanced by gender. The paper draws on samples of text from advertisements, government websites and focus group interviews with high-school girls in Australia in order to explore some of the risks and pleasures computers offer to young people. It considers how hierarchies of use and access in the home, and notions of appropriate female subjectivity and of 'social risk' -particularly in relation to chat and internet messaging- thread through their accounts. The implications of these factors for schools are discussed.