They make international headlines for all the wrong reasons and everyday we read about the increasingly large-scale havoc they cause: the hacking into corporate computer systems, the theft of credit card numbers, and the defacement of Web sites with vulgar, disturbing and sometimes hate-filled messages. But still - teenage hackers - who are they?

Social misfits? Loners? Pimpled face geeks? Dangerous and deceptive brainiac-villains? That is in fact the public's perception and how the media stereotype them.

Yet real teenage hacker culture is a patchwork of different personalities, backgrounds, motivations and experiences. In other words, there is no one picture of the average teenage hacker.

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