Chris

Chris is a year 9 student at a public, co-educational college (years 9 – 13), and is aged 13. He is a slightly built boy with blonde hair. Chris was born in England and moved to NZ at the age of 3. His mother said that Chris was using a computer at 2 years old. He lives in a suburb of a city with approximately 100,000 people.

At his mother’s house, the PC desktop computer is situated in the dining room beside the breakfast bar in the kitchen. They have dial-up internet.

Both Chris and his younger sister have their own personal laptops at their dad’s house which they are at for a week at a time before returning to their mother’s house (week and week about). They have broadband at their dad’s house. He tends to spend more time on the computer at his father’s place because of the ease of broadband and because he has more restrictions at his mother’s place.

Chris spends a lot of time playing games, but this is usually on his Playstation 2 machine. Chris believes he is a computer expert, but that currently, this has been ignored and somewhat discouraged at his school. He can list many software programmes that he believes he is skilled at using. The school he formerly attended played a significant role in the development and encouragement of his expertise.

Chris is involved with weekly drama classes and events.

Both parents work full-time and his mother is currently studying for her Masters degree. I did not have any contact with Chris’ father.