The newest teenagers on the block have never known life without computers, access to the internet, mobile phones and downloading music.

Angie, a 13 year old school girl, says she can sort of remember a time when she didn’t have a computer, but she was ‘pretty young’.

“I remember playing computer games when I was in year 3 at school,” says Angie.

So for a young teenager like Angie who has grown up with computer and internet technology, how much of a role does it play in her life?

At school Angie uses a laptop which has a wireless broadband connection to the internet.

“Teachers send us notices and emails and we work online quite often. I use Google to find information for assignments sometimes, but mostly I Google stuff for my Dad.

“I used to use a program I found on Google where you could compose music, it writes the music notations when you play and even transposes it from one key to another.

“Then there’s my 3G mobile phone, it’s great for taking photos, which I download to my computer. I can download music from my computer to my phone as well, that’s a really cool thing,” says Angie.

Angie and her friends use MSN instant messaging to run several conversations at once.

“It’s much better than having a telephone conversation because you can have five separate conversations going at the same time, you can’t do that on a phone,” explains Angie.

All electronic conversations at Angie’s house happen in the living room and around family conversations, so no one becomes isolated in cyberspace.

“That means when Angie and her friends find a new funny video on YouTube (www.youtube.com), everyone in the family gets to see it,” says her Dad.

Angie hasn’t played the computer games she started out on for years now, but her little brother, Tommy plays an internet game with his friends where they meet up in a virtual world called ‘Runescape’. Tommy, nine years old, recently told his Dad he wanted to move to America because the broadband speed is faster.