The use of the Internet in homes rivals the advent of the telephone, radio, or television in social significance. This book compiles findings from communication theorists and social scientists concerning the effects of the Internet on the lives of the family unit and its members. The book examines historical precedents of parental concern over "new" media such as television. The book then looks at specific issues surrounding parental oversight of Internet use, and at the effects of the Web on both domestic life and entire neighborhoods. The articles are as follows: (1) "Family Boundaries, Commercialism, and the Internet: A Framework for Research" (Joseph Turow); (2) "Disintermediating the Parents: What Else Is New?" (Elihu Katz); (3) "Historical Trends in Research on Children and the Media: 1900-1960" (Ellen Wartella and Byron Reeves); (4) "The Impact of the Internet on Children: Lessons from Television" (Daniel R. Anderson and Marie K. Evans); (5) "Television and the Internet" (Ellen Seiter); (6) "Data on Family and the Internet: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?" (Maria Papadakis); (7) "A Family Systems Approach to Examining the Role of the Internet in the Home" (Amy B. Jordan); (8) "The Internet and the Family: The Views of Parents and Youngsters" (Joseph Turow and Lilach Nir); (9) "Mediated Childhoods: A Comparative Approach to Young People's Changing Media Environment in Europe" (Sonia Livingstone); (10) "Outlook and Insight: Young Danes' Uses of the Internet--Navigating Global Seas and Local Waters" (Gitte Stald); (11) "Sex and the Internet: Issues, Concerns and Implications" (Mark Griffiths); (12) "The Internet's Implications for Home Architecture" (Steven Izenour); (13) "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Family Perspectives on the Future of the Home PC" (David Frohlick, Susan Dray, and Amy Silverman); (14) "Women, Guilt, and Home Computers" (Catherine Burke); (15) "'Nobody Lives Only Cyberspace': Gendered Subjectivities and Domestic Use of the Internet" (Lisa-Jane McGerty); (16) "Internet Paradox Revisited" (Robert Kraut and Others); (17) "Virtuality and Its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace" (Sherry Turkle); (18) "Three for Society: Households and Media in the Creation of Twenty-First Century Communities" (Jorge Reina Schement); (19) "When Everyone's Wired: Use of the Internet in Networked Communities" (Andrea L. Kavanaugh); (20) "Families and the Web: Community Building at Work" (Lodis Rhodes); (21) "Examining Community in the Digital Neighborhood: Early Results from Canada's Wired Suburb" (Keith N. Hampton and Barry Wellman). (Each article contains references.) (HTH)