Every child that surfs the internet visits websites, chats to others online, maybe even uploads pictures or writes text on hosted sites.

A recent development, however, is the overall shift from user to creator due to peer-to-peer networking, digital technology such as digital camera’s, applications like Photoshop. I’m interested in the movement of adolescents on the internet, but even more on how they change the internet by adding websites and bulletin boards themselves.

For children and teens this is much tougher to do that adults because generally they have less knowledge of the internet, and are not necessarily in control of how much time they spend online. Therefore it is especially interesting when adolescents make a website that many others visit.  And when they create a forum that they’ll have to work on everyday, because it’s a commitment.

Of course, there are many websites built by teens and dedicated to Hollywood shows, films, or stars, so I wanted to disregard those. I’ve decided to choose a bulletin board that focuses on and discusses a television show made for adolescents, to centre around the target audience. Hence I’ve chosen the site http://www.bbfree.com/tthf, a small national community that discusses the New Zealand television Series The Tribe.

The forum is in its entirety run and operated by adolescent fans. These girls have written their own rules for what they find appropriate. They’re resourceful. They’ve produced their forum from scratch, photoshopped pictures to add to borders and frames.

The show itself is interesting, but not exquisite. The ambivalence of it is out of the ordinary. It’s a kids’ show yet it involves teen pregnancy and sex. Ordinary social problems find their way to the screen – yet without input from adults. Most of the conversations and actions occur inside a built studio, much like a soap opera, yet enormous outside sets characterize the show.

     See, The Tribe is a post-apocalyptic show, where all people above a certain age have perished due to some mysterious virus. As a consequence kids – of all ages – are the actors in the show, and no-one else. In fact, the only adults shown in the series are in flashbacks.

It’s a show aimed at pre-adolescents, in the age group 11-14, but it stretches out either way.

I’d like to further investigate the theories regarding the users-to-creators leap that has been made the past couple of years. Moreover, I’d like to consider the angle of teens and preteens when this shift occurs, in the broader sense. As a focal point I take The Tribe and the Tribe Holland Forum, to illustrate and/or test proof information and theories I find.

My research question, is, therefore;