Young people are often looked upon as highly skilled ICT users. It is very often taken for granted that they are able to – for instance – access, analyze, evaluate and communicate by help of both old and new media. This view of young people as a homogeneous cohort of skilled ICT-users has recently been put into question for at least two separate but interrelated reasons. Firstly, because it is too much of a simplification to treat all young people as a generational whole. Secondly, the empirical basis for such generalizations has in fact so far been very weak.

This paper aims at starting to compensate for at least the latter problem. It contributes with empirical data of actual skills in and use of media in general and new ICTs in particular among Swedish 13-years old children. The data has been collected through a survey among all children within the age group in a Swedish municipality. The response rate is at 93.8% (N=276).

The data reveal differentiated attitudes to and use patterns of ICT, during school as well as in everyday life. It also reveals that young people are very likely to use the Internet for information-seeking, but does not drop other people or analogue sources. A finding that does not correspond with their actual use of the Internet since it is rather seldom used for, at least, school related seeking.

The paper draws on a research project that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses in researching Swedish teenagers view on information technology as a tool in their search for knowledge and to develop their learning.