Gabriela lives on the outskirts of Mexico City in a shantytown. She is poor and can't afford a computer like the other children, but she's also brilliant and has constructed the technology she needs from garbage and spare parts. She runs her machine from power siphoned from the local mains. Because she wants to be accepted, she hides her origins from her friends, masquerading on the 'Net as a rich little girl.
Ross lives as an only child in a middle class suburb of California. His mother (a single parent) is too busy to know what he's up to. His greatest desire is to be successful and rich, projecting a benevolent image of himself onto the 'Net to gain the trust of his friends so that he can manipulate them to his own advantage. The others like him a lot, and he becomes the leader of the group. His ability to invent a positive image of himself suggests he actually may be a good guy.
Taro lives in an affluent part of Osaka, Japan, and is fed up with computers. He has everything Gabriela wants: his bedroom resembles the bridge of a starship, it is so full of gadgets that his parents have bought him. More than the others, he realizes that technology has its limitations.
Claude is the youngest in a family of five sisters and one brother in a French-African family. Her parents ignore the girls in favor of their not-too-bright brother. Seeing this inequity, Claude establishes herself on the 'Net as a boy, and she loves the masquerade. She has a courageous and almost reckless streak.
