ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the social science findings regarding girls' online experiences, with particular attention on the empowering benefits girls report. It examines the constraints on that performativity, focusing first on the nexus between commercialism and surveillance on web sites targeting youth and second on criminal policy dialogue relating to online issues. Several OECD countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, have implemented national strategies designed to address online issues through education, policy and law reform. When feminist scholars first turned their attention to the Internet in the early 1990's, technology was seen as a 'boy's world'. Whereas boys are more likely to use social networking sites (SNS) to find new friends and flirt with strangers, girls rely on SNS to maintain and deepen their existing social relationships. The Media Awareness Network recently conducted an online survey that provides an interesting window into how difficult this visibility can be.
