A computer with Internet access enables anyone, but especially those seeking their autonomy, during the construction of their identity (here, the 10-12 age-group), to build or nurture relations that largely defy peer group or parental control. Not all take advantage of this opportunity in the same way. Apart from age, two variables account for variations in intensity of use: differences in sociability and differences in levels of parental control. These variables can also be used to understand the meaning of use in this context. The authors thus explain use in four ways, based on four user profiles in which the computer and Internet constitute either an extension of the world outside the home, an 'open window'? onto the outside world, a collective good that tends to unite the family, or, finally, a parental device that tends to keep the child in her/his position as their daughter/son.