In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for children to use information and communication technology in its various forms. Children now grow up immersed in technology to a level that keeps surprising earlier generations, but which, to them, is simply an inherent element of their habitat. Although this immersion is partly dependent on wealth and circumstance, it is certainly the case that in most developed countries children are frequently users and owners of Personal Computers, video game consoles, personal music technologies and mobile phones. This increase in usage of interactive technology by children has not gone unnoticed. More than ever before, technology manufacturers and service providers are turning their attention to children as a growing market segment. Even more important, societies are becoming concerned to ensure that appropriate products and services, namely those that can support development and enhance well-being, are being made available for children. Whatever motivates the design of interactive technology for children, it is clear that there is an urgent and present need for methodological knowledge about the design of these products and an understanding of the ways in which interaction takes place between the child and the technology. Designing technology for humans has been studied for many years. Initially concentrating on ergonomics of use, before becoming more concerned with general human factors, this field has now matured to the point where there are defined research areas that have clear identities. Human computer interaction (HCI) is that area that focuses on the interaction between man and machine. HCI has been growing in importance over the last 25 or more years, and, as a discipline, has matured and settled. For HCI practitioners and academics there are published curricula, dedicated high-impact journals, specialised undergraduate and postgraduate University courses, and vibrant associations of professionals in the field (e.g., Usability Professionals Association, British HCI group, ACM SIGCHI). Child computer interaction (CCI) is the sub-field of HCI that studies how children use interactive products. In contrast with HCI, CCI is still finding its way. Relating to sociology, education and educational technology, connected to art and design, and with links to storytelling and literature, as well as psychology and computing this new field borrows methods of inquiry from many different disciplines. This disparity in methods of enquiry makes it difficult for researchers to gain an overview of research, to compare across studies and to gain a clear view of cumulative progress in the field. It is difficult to identify an exact moment when CCI became a specialised field as it was a gradual maturity of the area that spawned its creation. In the early days, pioneering work by Papert and Resnick at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) laid the foundations for work that was carried forward by a few interested individuals around the globe. Several key individuals including P. Markopoulos (&) Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands e-mail: p.markopoulos@tue.nl