Recent mass diffusion of the mobile phone and Internet among pre/early adolescents has multiplied this group's communication possibilities. How do these new media relate to older communication tools? How do they participate in pre/early adolescents' socialization and in the construction of their identity? As individualized and personalized tools, the mobile phone and Internet enable pre/early teens to establish a 'relational autonomy'? vis-à-vis their family and peers at a very early age, and to communicate with other-gender peers more easily than at school. These tools furthermore constitute new resources in the construction of their personalities. By frequenting chat rooms where they adopt alternative identities, pre/early adolescents directly explore the social and gendered roles that intrigue them, the 'secrets'? of the other sex, and the adult world. In this context traditional gender and age barriers tend to fade.