Abstract
Today, digital media are of great importance in all age groups and especially in the development process of children and adolescents. Every year, the KIM and JIM studies, among others, provide information that media use is becoming more diverse in the different age groups and that digital media in particular are taking on a more important role in the socialisation process with increasing age (Schmidt/Hasebrink/Paus-Hasebrink 2009; KIM 2010; JIM 2010; Busemann/Gscheidle 2010). The internet is gradually replacing television as the leading medium in the different age groups, and this has already happened among young people (van Eimeren/Frees 2010). From a media education perspective, the informally acquired media-related skills and abilities with digital media and thus the accompanying experiences with the offers of the internet and the new ways of dealing with them are of particular importance today (e.g. in the context of social networks).
