ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the literacy practices of children aged from 5 to 11 as they engage in out-of-school use of virtual worlds. There is now extensive evidence that many children in developed societies have access to a range of technological hardware and, in the course of using this, participate in multiple digital practices (Blanchard & Moore, 2010; Ofcom, 2010; Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). These include activities such as watching television and films, playing with console games, using computers, and using a range of technological hardware such as karaoke and dance machines. Increasingly, online activities are prevalent in the out-of-school activities of children and young people. Patterns of access and use with regard to children and the Internet appear to be specific to context, however. In a study of 189 sixth and seventh graders’ use of computers in the U.S., Agee and Altarriba (2009) reported that the sixth graders they surveyed appeared to be largely uninterested in computers, but the seventh graders were more likely to express an interest in gaming and instant messaging. This contrasts somewhat with large-scale research conducted within the UK, which indicates that 84% of 9–19-year-olds in the UK access the Internet at least weekly (Livingstone & Bober, 2005) and 75% of children aged 8–11 report playing games (Ofcom, 2010). Socio-economic status and ethnicity map onto access and use (Moje, Overby, Tysvaer, & Morris, 2008), although it is clear that other factors also impact on children's use of online sites, such as established family practices (Marsh, Brooks, Hughes, Ritchie, & Roberts, 2005). This varied picture does indicate that many children have regular access to the Internet outside of school and there is growing evidence that they are engaged in a range of interactive practices, including the use of social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook and Myspace (Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005), and sites that facilitate online networking, such as virtual worlds (Marsh, 2010). While virtual worlds do not fit the criteria of SNSs as defined by Merchant (2009), they do include elements that enable social interaction, such as chat facilities and collaborative games.
