Youth Tech was the creation of Jeremy Wechsler, who was 15 at the time and Patrick Rue (both whom are no longer with Youth Tech), began in September of 1995 on eWorld, Apple's Online Service.

Why Youth Tech Was Started

Youth Tech first began it's journey on eWorld, Apple's Online Service.  eWorld was looking for a place where kids and teens could come to discuss Macintosh computers & technology. At that point, Youth Tech was born, providing kids and teens information and a place to gather to discuss technology.

Major Events Timeline:

1995:

• Summer, 1995: Youth Tech accepted onto eWorld, and forum construction began.

  • On eWorld, we built a foundation for the Youth Tech service -- it helped us find what attracted kids and teens, and how to run a service online.

• September 8, 1995: Youth Tech officially launched on eWorld.

  • Within a few months of its existence on eWorld, Youth Tech quickly grew to the top 20 forums list out of over 300 forums. 

1996:

• March 31, 1996: eWorld closed, forcing Youth Tech to relocate.

• April, 1996: Youth Tech moves onto the Internet, with LiveWorld Productions. A webpage and an IRC channel on TalkCity, LiveWorld's chat based community  We had structured chats, games, and content within Youth Tech.

• May, 1996: Youth Tech signs deal with AOL to appear in Computers & Software Channel. YT also leaves LiveWorld to pursue AOL opportunities.

• August 2, 1996: Youth Tech launches on AOL in Computers & Software Channel/Family Computing.

1997:

• March, 1997: Youth Tech usage on AOL peaks, with over 350,000 site impressions for the month.

• July, 1997: Record impressions for Youth Tech -- Almost 500,000 for the month!

• October 15, 1997: Official launch of the "New Youth Tech". 

1998:

• January, 1998: Youth Tech nominated for Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program (Education category)

• April, 1998: Youth Tech officially presented with Computerworld Smithsonian Award for excellence and innovation in the field of Education & Academia.

1999:

• July 22, 1999: America Online, Inc. initiates a new policy forcing all kid and teen content partners to hire paid employees to replace Community Leaders, forcing Youth Tech to enter into heavy transition, exploring many possible avenues of supporting our service.

• July 29, 1999: Announcement made for intention to create web-based service, youthtech.com with AOL as a web-pointing partner.

• August 31, 1999: YouthTech.com was officially launched.

2000:

• February, 2000: YT Direct Newsletter reaches its peak of more than 20,000 subscribers! From the latest-in-technology articles to computer-info to fun, humorous articles, our newsletter has always been a popular choice amongst our members.

• July, 2000: In July, YT began to offer Free Email Services to it's members!  Three choices of domain names became available.  Members can choose from @techieteen.net, @computerteen.com and @yteenz.net Email addresses. 

• September, 2000: YT added a FREE YT Games section!

Currently

• Youth Tech is more popular today than it has ever been before. We are connecting to kids and teens all over, leaving many of them looking for more [content] in Youth Tech.

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